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Aday after the Income TaxDepartment’s summons to

controversial arms dealerSanjay Bhandari, theEnforcement Directorate fol-lowed the suit on Thursday,directing him to provide detailsof all his property and financialtransactions for the past eightyears. It is expected thatBhandari would be probed forviolations of FEMA and PMLAprovisions by the ED.

The ED’s action came afterIncome Tax’s InvestigationDivision had shared with it thedetails of properties and com-panies floated by Bhandari inLondon, Dubai, the BritishVirgin Island and Panama.

It is expected that the agen-cies would summon Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra soon afterthe interrogation of Bhandari.There are email trails betweenthe two in connection with thepurchase of a Rs 19-crore housein London in 2009.

Sources indicated that CBIwill swing into action againstBhandari, after clearance fromthe Defence Ministry. Duringthe raid on April 26, the I-T

sleuths had unearthed DefenceMinistry-related files fromBhandari’s home and office.This may lead to slapping of theOfficial Secrets Act, after thenod from the Defence Ministry,they said.

Meanwhile, Civil AviationMinister Ashok Gajapathi Rajucame out in defence of hisbesieged aide Appa Rao for hisalleged contacts with Bhandari,saying that he has “confidence”in him and that the charges can

be verified. Rao’s name too hascropped up in the controversyinvolving Bhandari.

“If anyone has clandestinedeal with me, I want to knowhow they had it. It is my job tosee that there is nothing clan-destine going on, it is simplythat. As long as I have confi-dence in him (Rao), he is therebecause he is my appointee,”Raju told news channels.

“What is the allegationagainst him? That he has spo-

ken so many times. That (alle-gation) is verifiable. And it willbe verified...My personal staff,I am responsible for them, Ichoose them. If my personalstaff has done something, it ismy personal responsibility. I amsupposed to be there, they areaccountable to me. I am veryclear on that,” Raju said.

According to investigationagencies, Bhandari was con-stantly in touch with Rao, whois Raju’s Officer on SpecialDuty (OSD), and allegedlymade some 355 calls to him, acharge denied by Rao whoinsisted that the relationshipwas only “professional”.

“First of all so many callswould not have been there, Itell you.

Continued on Page 4

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Aspecial SIT court inAhmedabad on Thursday

convicted 24 of the 66 accused,including a VHP leader, in the2002 post-Godhra GulbargSociety massacre, which left 69people including formerCongress MP Eshan Jafri dead.Special Court Judge PB Desaiacquitted 36 others, includingsitting BJP corporator BipinPatel and also dropped theconspiracy charge (120 B)against all the accused. Out ofthe 66 accused, six died duringthe 14-year long trial.

Congress corporatorMeghsinh Chaudhari, and KGErda, then police inspector ofthe area under which theGulbarg Society was located,too were acquitted. While rul-ing out conspiracy in the sen-sational case, the court pro-nounced 11 out of the 24 con-vict guilty of murder under sec-tion 302 of IPC and others forlesser charges. The court wouldpronounce the quantum sen-tence on June 6. The SupremeCourt, which has been moni-toring the case, had directed theSIT court to give its verdict byMay 31. Of the 66 accusednamed by the SIT in the case,nine are already behind bars,while others are out on bail.

During the trial, riots vic-tim’s lawyer had argued that themassacre was a pre-plannedcriminal conspiracy hatched bythe accused to kill minoritycommunity members of theGulbarg Society. The defencehad refuted the conspiracytheory of prosecution andclaimed that the mob resortedto violence only after slain

Congress MP Eshan Jafri firedseveral rounds at them.

The Gulbarg Society case isone of the nine cases of the 2002Gujarat riots probed by theSupreme Court-appointed SIT.The incident had taken place aday after S-6 coach of Sabarmati

Express was burnt near Godhrarailway station on February27, 2002 during which 58 ‘kar-sevaks’ were killed.

Almost 24 hours of theGodhra train carnage, around9 am, a mob shouting slogansgathered outside the GulbargSociety in the Muslim-domi-nated Chamanpura area inAhmedabad. The Society com-prised 29 bungalows and 10apartment buildings.

Seeing large number ofpeople shouting slogan outsidethe society, many residents ofthe society decided to assem-ble at former Congress MP andMuslim leader Ehsan Jafri’shome. By noon, the mob start-ed turning violent and broke the boundary wall of thesociety and started to set hous-es on fire.

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With the race for the fourRajya Sabha seats from

Karnataka getting intense,money power is allegedly atplay. Two TV channels onThursday came out with stingoperations showing MLAsengaged in demanding moneyin lieu of their support for theRajya Sabha candidates.

Times Now and IndiaToday news channels showedsome independent MLAs, theircounterparts from smaller par-ties besides former PrimeMinister and JD(S) chief DeveGowda’s relatives and associatesinvolved in discussing the

amounts on offer for them fortheir support to Rajya Sabhacandidates.

The Rajya Sabha electionsin Karnataka heated up afterfive candidates entered the frayfor the total four seats from theState. While Union MinisterNirmala Sitharaman andCongress leaders Oscar

Fernadez and Jairam Rameshare considered as sure winners,the fight for the fourth seat intensified after theCongress fielded former IPSofficer Ramamoorthy and the JD(S) fielded businessmanBM Farooq.

As Farooq andRamamoorthy don’t have suf-

ficient party votes to win, thevotes of the independents andsmaller parties’ MLAs are badlyneeded. Cross voting betweenthe Congress and the JD(S)MLAs too isn’t being ruled out.

Though no moneyexchange was videographed,independent MLA likeVarathoor Prakash, JD(S) MLAMallikarjun Khuba, KJP MLABR Patil were seen discussingthe amount to be paid by the Rajya Sabha candidate fortheir support.

They talked about how thecurrent price tag of each MLAranged between �5 crore and�10 crore. JD(S) candidate BMFarooq was also seen in a stingvideo talking about the hugeexpenses for the victory.

In the JD(S), some MLAsare unhappy over the denial ofticket to party leader DanishAli and Deve Gowda allottingthe seat to businessmanFarooq.

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The BJP leadership will soontake a final call on

Maharashtra’s Revenue MinisterEknath Khadse as State ChiefMinister Devendra Fadnavis onThursday met party presidentAmit Shah and submitted “a fac-tual report” on the controversyinvolving the senior OBC leader.

“I have submitted a factualreport to Amit Shah on Khadse.The party will take necessaryaction,” said Fadnavis after meet-ing Shah here. He also met PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on a sep-arate matter, but sources said, theydiscussed the controversy sur-rounding Khadse, whose resig-nation has been demanded by ally

Shiv Sena. The Minister is bogged down

with twin scandals over an illicitland deal and his cellphoneallegedly appearing in the callrecords of most-wanted gangsterDawood Ibrahim.

“The BJP chief had sought thereport on Khadse from Fadnavisin keeping with the Modi-Government’s stated zero-toler-ance policy on corruption,”sources said.

Khadse has been under attackby political rivals and BJP ally ShivSena over the alleged improprietyover purchase of a land belongingto the Government-owned MIDC

in Pune at a throwaway price.Though skirting queries on

the immediate removal of Khadsefrom the State Council ofMinisters, a section of party lead-ers said Shah considers allegationsagainst Khadse “serious”, whichhave given “enough ammunition”to the political rivals causing dam-age to “the taint-free Government”at the Centre and the State.

Joining the chorus for Khadse’souster, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Rautreminded ally BJP of its promise ofa corruption-free rule and demand-ed the Chief Minster to clarify hisstand on the issue.

Continued on Page 4

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The Congress is in trouble inChhattisgarh now. Its old

warhorse Ajit Jogi on Thursdayraised a banner of revolt,threatening to form a newparty and accusing theCongress of being the BJP’s “Bteam” in the State. The party hitback with AICC general secre-tary Digvijay Singh saying itwould be beneficial for theparty if he leaves.

The latest trouble in

Chhattisgarh follows theCongress’s woes in ArunachalPradesh, Uttarakhand, andMeghalaya-all ruled by it.While it got reduced to its low-est ever tally in the Lok Sabha,

it even lost power in Assam andKerala in the just concludedAssembly polls.

While Jogi said that he isunder tremendous pressurefrom his supporters to quit theCongress and float a new partyto challenge the Raman SinghGovernment, his move couldbe linked to the speculationabout the expected elevation ofRahul Gandhi as the partypresident.

Rahul had expelled Ajit’sson Amit Jogi over alleged“fixing” of a 2014 Assemblybypoll to ensure the rulingBJP’s win in Chhattisgarhalmost six months ago. Jogi,however, denied his plan to quitthe Congress has anything todo with it.

Continued on Page 4

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Apolice station in-charge (SHO)was killed and Mathura City

Superintendent of Police (SP) sus-tained bullet injuries on Thursday ina violence during an anti-encroach-ment drive in Mathura. A civilian was killed in the retaliatory action bythe police.

The incident occurred when thepolicemen were trying to removeencroachment on a land in Mathuraon the directions of the AllahabadHigh Court, IG (Law and Order)Police HR Sharma told PTI.

“Santosh Kumar, SHO of theSarah police station, was killed in fir-

ing by encroachers, whereas SP (City)Mukul Dwivedi sustained bulletinjury and he is critical,” he said.

Around 3,000 encroachers pelt-ed stones and later opened fire at the

police team as soon they began theprocess to remove encroachment, saidthe IG. In retaliation, the police hadto resort to baton-charge and laterlobbing tear gas shells at the

encrochers, Sharma added. Four more policemen were

injured in the clash with two sus-taining bullet injuries.

Continued on Page 4

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In what may be seen as anoth-er setback for the Congress-

led State Government, theUttarakhand High Court inNainital has ordered a stay onthe implementation of theGovernment order dated May25, 2016 regarding the appoint-ment of guest teachers. TheState has been given threeweeks to file its reply in thecase.

It should be noted here thatRishikesh resident Alok Parmarand Nainital resident MamtaPant had filed a petition in theHigh Court of Uttarakhand inwhich they have elicited thecourt's attention to the gov-ernment order regarding theappointment of guest teachersissued on May 25 while alsoadding that the regular

appointments have not beenmade for a considerable timeperiod now.

The petitioners stated thataccording to the said govern-ment order, any candidate suc-ceeding at the block level is eli-gible for employment in any ofthe government schools in theState which is in violation of therules. Following the hearing,the High Court single bench ofJustice Sudhanshu Dhuliaordered a stay on the imple-mentation of the said govern-ment order regarding appoint-ment of guest teachers. Thecourt also expressed dissatis-faction at the recurringappointment of teachers in amanner which is not in accor-dance with the statement sub-mitted in the court by theeducation department in thepast.

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Following the show-causenotice sent by the Assembly

Speaker, Govind SinghKunjwal, asking two MLAs,one each from the Congressand the BJP, to explain whythey had cross-voted duringthe May 10 floor test, theMLAs submitted their repliesin writing to the Speaker onThursday.

Political circles are agogwith curiosity over what theSpeaker would decide regard-ing Congress MLA Rekha Aryaand BJP MLA Bhim Lal Aryawho cross-voted, defying theirrespective party whip.

The State BJP leadershipsounds pessimistic over thefinal ruling of the Speaker on

the emotive issue. They say thatit is a foregone conclusion thatin tune with his biased andvindictive mindset the Speakerwould disqualify Rekha Aryawhile allowing Bhim LalArya to retain his membershipof the House.

Notably, BJP MLA BhimlalArya, who voted against theparty line despite issuance ofparty whip which was pastedon his house in the presence ofmedia, has mentioned in hisreply that the allegations madeby his party chief whip againsthim were absurd.

Congress MLA RekhaArya, who cross-voted againstthe Harish Rawat Governmentduring the floor test, hasexpressed her surprise overbeing asked to show cause.

She sought 10-15 daysmore, citing her present phys-ical indisposition and her treat-ment going on in Meerut. Sheassured that she would meetthe Speaker to understand thetechnicalities of the noticeonce she is well.

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The employee unions ofUttarakhand roadways have

upped their ante against therecruitment drive of drivers.The Uttarakhand TransportCorporation has recentlyreleased a recruitment adver-tisement for 300 posts of driversin the roadways. The employ-ee unions are demanding thatthe drivers serving in the stateroadways on contract basisshould be given some reserva-tion in this recruitment drive.

The transport corporationhas released the recruitmentadvertisement which is open

for all residents of Uttarakhand.The Uttaranchal RoadwaysKaramchari Union (URKU)has decided to start an agitationfrom June 08, if the corporationdoes not makes amendments inthe recruitment advertisementin the favour of thousands ofcontractual drivers.

The state transport corpo-ration has about 1500 driversand 1200 conductors who areserving in the roadways fromlast ten years. The remunera-tion of these drivers and con-ductors is based on the num-ber of kilometers commuted bythem. In hills the drivers get aremuneration of Rs 1.78 per

kilometer while in plain areasthey are paid on the basis of Rs1.50 per KM. Similarly theconductors are paid Rs 1.44and Rs 1.24 per KM in hills andplain areas respectively.

The General Secretary ofURKU, Ashok KumarChoudhary said, “It appearsthe corporation has made adeliberate attempt to preventthe contractual drivers fromeven applying for these per-manent posts as it has made itmandatory that the applicantshould be enrolled in theemployment exchanges of stateand they have kept a datewhich is a day before the

release of advertisement. It isa normal practice in therecruitment releases that thecandidates are allowed toenroll in employmentexchange till the last date ofapplication. Very few of con-tractual drivers serving fromlast ten years are enrolled

which means that they arenot eligible for the permanentpost. The ARKU would holdprotest meeting at ISBTDehradun and roadways busstands Haldwani and Tanakpurfrom June 08 and the agitationwould be intensified till thegenuine demand is accepted. ’’

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Women in the border areaof Jhulaghat in

Pithoragarh district have put touse their sewing and knittingskills to make brisk incomefrom the thriving India-Nepaltrade here. Almost a dozengroups of women aided underthe Integrated LivelihoodSupport Project (ILSP) haveearned more than Rs 25,00,000selling their products sinceSeptember 2015 till date.

A rural settlement situatedabout 38 kilometres fromPithoragarh, Jhulaghat is on theborder with Nepal with the Kaliriver separating it from the set-tlement on Nepal’s side whereit is also called Jhulaghat. Alarger part of the populacesettled here practice non-farmlivelihoods whereas shops andother businesses dealing inwool, grains and other con-sumer items are also beingrun by individuals and families.According to the ILSPUttarakhand Gramya VikasSamiti (UGVS)

manager of knowledgemanagement, Anil Maikhuri,the project started here in 2015with most of the womengroups opting for stitching,spinning, knitting and relatedworks. He said, “The groupsused their own savings and theILSP contribution to extendthese traditional works in theirgroups. Some groups installedthe latest knitting and sewingmachines as a result of which

they were able to achieve a sub-stantial improvement in theiroutput and the quality of theproducts. Also, since they aredoing business as a group,their collective output com-mands better prices duringprice negotiations. The ‘econ-omy of scale’ has come intooperation and as a result theyare making better profits, com-pared to when they were oper-ating as individuals,” informed

Maikhuri.President of the Samiti,

Hemlata Oli states that sincesewing machines are costly(Rs 5000 to 30,000 each) notevery member in the group canbuy it at the same time.Considering this, she said thatthey plan to use the revolvingfunds in a cyclical manner sothat every woman in the grouphas a machine soon. Babita ofKamakhya group says that itwould be considerably helpfulif Tripura Sundari Cooperative-set up with help from ILSP- isable to provide them raw mate-rial like wool and help themwith marketing of their prod-ucts. It is pertinent to mentionhere that

11 groups focused onstitching works with a total of79 members have achievedconsiderable success sellingtheir products to both Indianand Nepali customers.According to official data, sinceSeptember 2015 till date, thecombined earnings of these 11groups have reached theamount of Rs 26,74,275.

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The issue of the public inGairsain demanding the

formation of Gairsain as a dis-trict has elicited the attentionof the Vidhan Sabha deputyspeaker Dr Anusuya PrasadMaikhuri who has written toand also met the Chief MinisterHarish Rawat regarding it.Citing the public sentimentissue, Maikhuri requested thechief minister to facilitateefforts towards reaching anagreement on the issue.

According to informationprovided, in his letter to the chiefminister, the assembly deputyspeaker has elicited focus onpublic sentiment in the Gairsainregion. Responding to hisrequest, chief minister HarishRawat reportedly assuredMaikhuri that the StateGovernment will pay full atten-tion on issues of public interest

and the general public sentiment.It should be noted here that

following publication of mediareports regarding the creationof eight new districts inUttarakhand, the residents ofGairsain approached theKarnprayag MLA AnusuyaPrasad Maikhuri and expressedtheir disappointment atGairsain not being included inthe list of proposed new dis-tricts. Considering the senti-ment expressed by the public,the MLA wrote a letter to chiefminister Harish Rawat request-ing that Gairsain also be creat-ed into a new district. In addi-tion to the letter, the assemblydeputy speaker also personal-ly met the chief minister andexpressed public sentimentswhile asking that the authori-ties should not cause hurt to theregional public sentiment.Responding to the request, thechief minister assured

Maikhuri that development ofvarious aspects in Gairsain ison top of the StateGovernment’s developmentalagenda. Meeting the publicexpectations of the people ofUttarakhand is a major aim ofthe State Government. TheCM further said that the StateGovernment has taken variousmeasures making its inten-tions regarding Gairsain clearwith facilitation of basic facil-ities like supply of electricityand drinking water supply,construction of motor roads,efforts towards makingGairsain the capital ofUttarakhand State, construc-tion of hostel for official resi-dence and Vidhan Sabha sec-retariat building. Rawat askedthe public to rest assuredbecause in addition to makingGairsain a district, the State willbring about development invarious aspects here.

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An all India Artist Campon painting is being

organised at Bidholi campusof University of Petroleumand Energy Studies (UPES).The three camp organisedunder joint aegis of WisdomSociety of Creative Arts start-ed on Thursday.

The camp was inauguratedby the prominent journalistKushal Kothiyal.

Speaking on the occasionhe appreciated the contributionof artists in society and nationbuilding. He said by the help ofthese platforms, the artists getan opportunity to display their

artistic talent and motivate thestudents and members of thestaff.

A total of 25 artists ofrepute from all over India areparticipating in this Art Camp.

The University has madestaying arrangements for theseartists in the UPES Campus.

The Chancellor of theUniversity, Dr. S J Chopra,Vice Chancellor Dr Shirhari,Director Administration, BrigS S Dhillon (Rtd), VicePresident Academic Affairs,Dr S R Dass, Deputy DirectorAdministration PraveenSrivastava (Rtd) and ManagerAdministration Manish Yagnikwere present on the occasion.

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The Indian Muslim Welfareand Educational Mission

has blamed the successiveGovernments of Uttarakhandfor ignoring Muslims.Addressing newsmen here onThursday the President of themission, Hazi Nassimuddinwarned the CongressGovernment headed by HarishRawat that continued igno-rance of Muslims in the Statecould prove costly to theCongress party in the nextassembly elections.

He cited the examples ofUttar Pradesh, Delhi, Assamand Kerala where the Congresswas at receiving end of theanger of Muslims.Nassimuddin said that the postof President Madarsa Board isvacant for a long time similar-ly the positions in UrduAcademy are not filled. He saidthat the position of state Waqf

Board is also vacant and theMuslims are not being givenproper representation in thegovernment corporations andboards. The President of themission said that the Muslimsshould be given reservationunder a separate quota inUttarakhand and a 10 percentreservation should be provid-ed to backward castes ofMuslims. He demanded thatthe vacant posts of Urdu teach-ers in government schools andUrdu translators should beimmediately filled. The missionalso demanded that MuslimMusafirkhanas should beopened in the districts ofDehradun, Haridwar, UdhamSingh Nagar and Nainitalwhere substantial population ofMuslims resides. Nassimuddinsaid that the Muslim commu-nity of state would be forced tohit the path of agitation if itsgenuine demands are notaccepted.

�� .�

The association of NationalHealth Mission (NHM)

contractual employees has wel-comed the decision of StateGovernment to set up a highlevel committee to look into thedemands of the contractualworkers of the Health

.��

Dehradun: People visiting the Regional Transport Office (RTO)of Dehradun faced problems on Thursday as the office was shutdown by the agitating employees. The work in other offices ofthe transport department in the state was also hindered by theagitation. The ministerial employees of the transport departmentforced the closure of the office. These employees are agitatedover alleged anomalies in recent transfers of the employees.

The decision to close the busy office was taken in animpromptu meeting of the Uttarakhand Transport MinisterialEmployees Association on Wednesdayfollowing which all theministerial employees boycotted the work. The work boycottbrought the work of the RTO office in state capital to a grind-ing halt causing problems to the large number of visitors. Laterin the day a delegation of the association met the AdditionalTransport Commissioner Sushma Singh in which the associ-ation was assured that its demands would be looked into. OnFriday Transport Commissioner, C S Napalchiyal would alsohold talks with the agitating ministerial employees.

The district President of the association, Y S Bisht toldThe Pioneer that the department has recently transferred 81employees in which transfers of state President, general sec-retary and some district Presidents were also done. He saidthat these transfers are against the department manual 2008which prohibits transfers of top office bearers of the associ-ation. In the transfer list the names of state President SushmaChaudhary and state general secretary S L Pandey also fig-ures. He said that the agitation would continue till these trans-fers are not revoked. PNS

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Department. A meeting of association was organised here onThursday where the letter of state health minister Surendra SinghNegi which mentioned the government’s decision was discussed.The secretary of the association, Vimal Mourya said that it wasdecided in the meeting that the association would seek supportof all elected representatives for their job regularization in healthdepartment.

There are more than 1500 contractual workers employedunder NHM who are working in different projects and hospi-tals of state government. Apart from job regularization the mem-bers also demand a proper insurance cover and implementationof Human Resource policy for them. The association also wantsremoval of pay disparity and timely increments.

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Cloudy sky and drizzlinghave brought the

Dehradun residents relief fromhot and humid condition onThursday.

In Dehradun, the sky wasovercast since the morning onThursday. It drizzled in theafternoon, bringing down themercury by a few notches. TheMet office has forecast light tomoderate rain/thunderstorm atisolated places in Uttarakhand

on Friday. The Met office hasforecast light to moderaterain/thunderstorm at isolatedplaces in Uttarakhand till June6, it is learnt.

Met director Bikram Singhsaid that the weather forecastfor Dehradun on Friday is

mainly clear to partly cloudysky and thunder cloud devel-opment in some areas. Themaximum and minimum tem-peratures are likely to bearound 36ºC and 25ºC respec-tively on Friday.

Singh further informed

that the maximum and min-imum temperatures wererecorded at 36ºC (normal)and 24.4ºC (three degreeabove the normal) inDehradun while it was 23.3ºC(one degree below the nor-mal) and 14.7ºC (two degreeabove the normal) inMukteshwar, 26.4ºC (normal)and 17.6ºC (normal) in Tehriand 35.4ºC (two degree belowthe normal) and 27.8ºC (fivedegree above the normal) inPantnagar on Thursday.

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Haridwar’s son Lt ColRanjeet Singh Pawar was

cremated on Thursday after-noon in Kankhal with full hon-our in the presence of themembers of the Army regimentand others. A large number ofpeople turned up to pay a tearyadieu to the young Army offi-cer. The six -year old son of thedeceased and his brother set theofficer's pyre to flames.

Pawar died as a major firebroke out at India's biggestCentral Ammunition Depot at

Pulgaon in Maharashtra fol-lowed by a blast at 1 am onTuesday. At 2.43 pm, the body ofthe deceased was brought to hisresidence in Shivalik Nagar on anArmy vehicle. Industrialists fromSIDCUL, political leaders, edu-cationists, and denizens ofHaridwar had gathered at his res-

idence at noon. Among thosepresent were Ganga Sabha pres-ident Purushottam SharmaGandhiwadi and MahanagarCongress Committee headAnshul Shrikunj. At 4 pm thefuneral procession started. FatherBahadur Singh Pawar, mother,wife Renu and son Robby who

came from Wardha on Thursdayaccompanied the hearse to thecremation grounds along withthe Army officers. Congresspresident Upadhyay and OSD ofChief Minister PurushottamSharma were also present. Hisneighbor Gagan Kalra said,“Ranjeet was a happy go kind ofa person, always cheering others.He was known by his nick nameRana. After he got his first post-ing in 2003 in Siachen, his rela-tives were tense. But he cheeredthem, saying that nothing wouldhappen to him. Always full of lifePawar liked mountaineering andalso was fond of music. ”

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The State Government hasreleased a Government

order giving its seal on the hikein allowances of the HomeGuards from � 350 to ��400 perday. The Chief Minister HarishRawat had on December 6,2015 declared that theallowances for them would behiked soon while addressing aprogramme held at homeguard directorate,Naroorkheda.

Informing this, additionalDGP (administration) RamSingh Meena said on Thursday

that A total of 6411 homeguards who are serving in dif-ferent wings of the policedepartment and StateGovernment would be bene-fited from this hike. As perrequirement, home guards areemployed in the police depart-ment.

Meena said that the homeguards are rewarded on a parwith police constables for theirsuccess in cracking cases. Thefacility of age relaxation isavailable for home guards toowhen they apply for any postsin police and fire servicesdepartments, he added. Several

welfare schemes are beingimplemented by the StateGovernment for the welfare ofhome guards and their families.

He further said that thehome guards are deployed onvarious works like maintaininglaw and order, crime and traf-fic. They also work as com-puter operators in the policedepartment. Attending emer-gency duties is one amongtheir long list of duties. Homeguards are handling all the jobsat par with the constables.Save for a month, they aregiven jobs throughout the year,he added.

A home guard deputed atCollectorate said, “It is goodthat the government orderhas been released on the hikein allowances from ��350 to �400. We have been demandingthe hike for the past fewyears.”

Another said that thingshad been very difficult forthem to meet the spiralingfamily expenses with the pricesof all the essential commoditiessky-rocketing. “Besides, thereare tuition fees for our children.��15, 000 per month should bethe minimum amount for us byway of allowance,” he added.

�� .�

Alarge number of retried andserving personnel of Army

Education Corps (AEC) attend-ed the 96th Raising Day of AECon Wednesday. A glittering cer-emony to commemorate theday was organised at the presti-gious Indian Military Academy(IMA). The IMA Commandant,Lt Gen S K Saini, attended theceremony and conveyed his bestwishes to all ranks and familiesof the AEC. Speaking on theoccasion the Head of theAcademic Department, IndianMilitary Academy and ColonelCommandant, ArmyEducational Corps, Brigadier,V N Chaturvedi exhorted allranks of the Corps to re-dedicatethemselves to the cause of edu-cation in the Army and sur-mount the challenges lyingahead.

The history of AEC datesback to 1921 when as a directfallout of the Esher CommitteeReport submitted by Lord Esheron 22 Jul 1920, the Governmentannounced its decision to form

the Royal Indian ArmyEducational Corps (RIAEC),which was raised on 15 Jun1921. Later in 30 April 30, 1946,the then Secretary of States forIndia approved the formation of“Indian Army EducationalCorps” with effect from 01 Jun1947. The prefix “Indian” was

dropped when India becameSovereign Republic on 26 Jan1950. An Army communiquésays that in its illustrious histo-ry, AEC has carved a niche foritself in diversified spheres likeHuman Resource Development,Foreign/ Regional LanguageTraining, School

Administration, Map CraftTraining, Library Training,Personality DevelopmentTraining, enhancement of edu-cational qualification of IndianArmy soldiers and EnglishLanguage Training for Militarypersonnel from friendly for-eign countries.

�� .�

Protesting against miscre-ants pelting stones on the for-mer MLA Pranav Singh‘Champion’s residence inLandhaura and setting ablazeseveral vehicles on Wednesday,BJP activists gathered at KanakChowk and burnt the ChiefMinister in effigy on Thursday.

The BJP leaders warnedthat they would intensify the stiracross the State. They soughtCBI inquiry into the issue.

Hundreds of BJP activistsled by Mahanagar presidentUmesh Aggarwal and formerMLA Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’assembled at Mahanagar officeand shouted slogans againstthe State Government over theissue. Later, they staged a rallywhile holding the Congress- ledstate government responsible forthe violence. They were, how-ever, stopped at the barricade atKanak Chowk. Later, they burntthe effigy of the Chief Minister.

Speakers accused the CM ofspreading communal tension inHaridwar for narrow politicalgains. Miscreants had dared todamage properties and torchedcars of their leaders at the behestof the CM, they said. This wasclear as police had not acted intime, they further alleged. InRishikesh too, BJP membersprotested over the incident andsought additional police forcesfor the security of the MLAs orthe former MLAs. Sacred by tenMLAs joining the BJP, theCongress leaders are instigatinggoons to attack the residence ofthe former MLAs, BJP leaderPrem Chandra Aggarwal alleged.

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Following the flare-up thatresulted in arson and ten-

sion in Landhaura town,Haridwar police arrested 23people, including main accusedRaj Kumar alias Krishan Raj, onWednesday night. Heavy policeforce being deployed andSection 144 enforced, the dis-

trict magistrate has prohibitedcarrying of sword, hockey stickand any kind of weapon tillJune 8 in the district with par-ticular emphasis on places likeLaksar, Roorkee andBhagwanpur.

No fresh violence hasbeen reported so far, claimedthe local police. Internet ser-vices have also been blockedin Landhaura, Manglaur andLaksar towns as precaution-ary measures. Ban has alsobeen enforced in the area onthe use of loud-speakers,though those used in reli-gious places were exempted,said the statement issued byDM office on Thursday. Itwarned against use of offen-sive language meant to hurtthe religious sentiments ofthe people. It also said that noone will be allowed to stockstones, pebbles, or bricks onroof tops etc.

Meanwhile, four MLAs —Sanjay Gupta, SwamiYateeshwaranand, MadanKaushik, Chandrashekhar -and former MLA PradeepBatra were arrested fromShantarshah village while theywere approaching Landhaura.They were later released onbail by CJM court.

“The situation is wellunder control in the area andno fresh violence has beenreported so far. We havearrested the main accused,Raj Kumar and 22 others.Investigation is on,” said SSPHaridwar Rajeev Swaroop whohas recently taken charge ofthe district.

Speaking to The Pioneer,District Magistrate HarbansSingh Chugh said, “Theadministration has taken nec-essary steps to control the lawand order situation. Sectormagistrates have been deployedin the area and the internet ser-vices have been blocked in theaffected areas till Thursdayevening. Besides, section 188

has been enforced in the dis-trict. Any violation will bestrictly dealt with.”

Notably, tension grippedLandhaura area in Haridwardistrict on Wednesday afterthe relatives of the BJP leaderKunwar Pranav Singh

‘Champion’ attempted tovacate a shop run by a par-ticular community in themarket owned by ‘Champion’.This led to stone-pelting andarson with several vehiclesbeing put ablaze by the mob.The police resorted to lathi-

charge and firing in the air tocontrol the situation. Themob also headed to the BJPleader’s residence Rang Mahaland set vehicles on fire there.More than 20 people, includ-ing police personnel, wereinjured.

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While on duty in trouble-torn Landhaura in

Roorkee in Haridwar district,senior police officers stum-bled upon a large quantity ofstones and pebbles in the dis-turbed areas. They said theyhad been surprised to see thehuge stock of such things in theareas which were rocked byviolence on Wednesday.

They said they wouldinvestigate the matter serious-ly whence and how they hadbeen stockpiled. Meanwhile, tomaintain law and order, theCentral government deployedthree companies of Centralarmed police forces (two com-panies of Rapid Action Forceand one company of ITBP) lateon Wednesday night.

The armed police forceshave staged a flag march torestore peace after violentclashes occurred in Landhauraarea over the alleged throwingof religious books by some per-sons on Wednesday noon.

Earlier, the state govern-ment had sought six companiesof CAPF following tension.Three companies have reachedHaridwar. Meanwhile,Governor Dr KK Paul hassought a report from the stateadministration home over theviolence that broke out inLandhaura on Wednesday.

State additional directorgeneral of police (administra-tion) Ram Singh Meena saidthat section 144 of CrPC hasbeen enforced in the district.Earlier, it was restricted toonly Landhaura area. Two FIRs

have been registered in con-nection with the violence.

Mahboob Hasan, resident ofLandhaura, has registered acomplaint and a case under sec-tions 323/504/506/295 of IPChas been registered againstKrishan Kumar alias Rajkumarand two other unidentified per-sons in Manglaur police station.Accused Rajkumar was laterarrested. Taking note of stonepelting, arson and creating lawand order problem by unidenti-fied persons, a case under sec-t i o n s147/148/149/332/333/336/353/436/504/307 of IPC and 3/5 PDPPAct and 7 CLA Act against 22named and 150 unidentifiedpersons have been reported atLandhaura police post. InLandhaura locality, 30 areashave been identified as sensitive.

They have been divided into twozones and five sectors. Oneadditional SP has been deputedas in-charge at each zone whileone circle officer at each sector.

Senior police officers likeGarhwal Range IG SanjayKumar Gunjyal, DIG (law andorder), PHQ, Pushpak Jyoti,three SPs- Mukhtar Mohsin,Janmayjay Khanduri and AjayJoshi- two additional SPs, fourcircle officers, 10 companies ofPACs have been deployed tomaintain law and order in thetension- prone area. Seniorofficers at police headquartersare monitoring the situationround the clock, it is learnt.

Meena said that alert hasbeen issued and police officers,including intelligence staffs, havebeen directed to be vigilantagainst the anti- social elements.

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Dehradun: Scotchingrumours that ran rifethroughout the day over hisbeing sent back to Delhi,given his worsening relationwith the state government,State DGP MA Ganapathywho is now in Hyderabadhad to issue press release,denying that he has beenshifted away from the state.

He said that some anti-social elements had spreadthe rumour with a mali-cious motive. This isabsolutely baseless, he said,adding that legal actionwould be taken againstthem. PNS

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Mercury soaring high inneighbouring plain dis-

tricts and other parts of thecountry, Dehradun is drawinghordes of tourists whose des-tinations are the queen of hillsMussoorie and alsoDhanaulti. In view of thethrongs of tourists comingnow, the administration hasdrafted traffic plan to keep thetraffic movement free fromcongestion.

Mussoorie-Landour andDhantaulti remain the craze asthey are heading towards

these famed hill stations toenjoy the coolness. Schoolsbeing closed to spare the chil-dren the summer-inducedsuffering, they are foundaccompanying their parentsup to the hill stations. Trains,buses and other vehicles arepacked to their capacities.

In Dehradun, the admin-istration has decided to enforceone- way traffic system inMussoorie on Saturday andSunday. As per plan, the vehi-cles going towards Mussooriewould go there via Hathipao.While returning to Dehradun,they would follow the

Mussoorie route, said SP TrafficDS Gunjyal on Thursday. Thisdecision has been taken inview of the tourists and thelocals grappling with huge traf-fic jams. “Things would wors-en as the visitors would gothere on week –end trips unlesswe take some corrective steps,”he added.

He said that the vehiclesgoing to Library Chowk, MallRoad and Kempty Falls inMussoorie from Dehradunwould follow the MussoorieRoad (Gajji Band). Theywould turn left for Hathipaoand then would reach Kala

School before headingtowards Mussoorie.

However, all the vehiclesplying on Char Dham Yatraroutes would be allowed to godirectly to Mussoorie. Bigbuses going towards KemptyFalls would be stopped atKingreg. Local buses or taxiwould be allowed to go toKempty Falls. Vehicles goingtowards Picture Palace, JPBand and Dhanaulti fromDehradun would go viaKingreg. Policemen have beendeployed at important places tofacilitate the people to com-plete their journey, glitch free.

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Dehradun: To show solidarity with the newly joined BJP leader and former MLA KunwarPranav Singh ‘Champion’, whose house was attacked by a furious mob and whose uncle was arrest-ed on late Wednesday night in the wake of the Landhaura violence, a delegation of BJP leadersled by state BJP president Ajay Bhatt met the Governor Dr KK Paul on Thursday evening. Theysubmitted a memorandum too, seeking police protection for the former MLA.

It is pertinent to mention here that ‘Champion’ is one of the nine dissident MLAs who hadbrought Harish Rawat government into minority on March 18, resulting in the dismissal of thegovernment by Presidential proclamation issued on March 27.

Although he always love to be in limelight and most of the time for wrong reasons, this timehe is at the receiving end of things with his house and cars being attacked and his relative beingarrested. Interestingly, he said a few days ago he was feeling insecure under the Harish Rawat regime.BJP leaders close to him said his anticipation of attacks coming his way has been justified by whathappened in Landhaura on Wednesday. Police remaining spectators with the goons going on therampage revealed the premeditated conspiracy that triggered the violence, they said.

BJP mentioned in the memorandum it served to the Governor that a congress MLA and lead-ers belonging to a particular community had been seen instigating the mob to attack the ex-MLA’shouse with police being neutralised. PNS

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Ten persons received injurieswhen the bus they were

travelling in skidded off the roadand slipped into a gorge at atDhirokhal in Thalisain tehsil(revenue area), Pauri onThursday. The injured who wereadmitted at the communityhealth centre were released later.

Local policemen conduct-ed relief and rescue operationafter being informed. The buswas coming to Pauri fromThalisain, said Pauri SPNivedita Kukreti.

The Parliamentary stand-ing committee of Defence,chaired by veteran BJP leaderMajor General BhuwanChandra Khanduri (Rtd) visit-ed the Indian Military Academyand Instrument ResearchDevelopment Establishment(IRDE) campuses on Thursday.The committee consisted often members of parliamentand eight officials. At IMA thecommittee was briefed on train-ing of Ex NDA and various cat-egories of Direct Entries in theIMA and the preparationsundertaken for grooming themto become Officers in the Army.The visiting members alsointeracted with the IMACommandant, Lt Gen SK Saini,on various training and admin-istrative aspects. The team vis-ited the IMA War memorial,the historic Chetwode Hall andother institutes of IMA and heldan informal meeting with theofficers of the IMA. PNS

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In what could lead to provid-ing a solution to India’s water

scarcity problem, the Councilof Scientific & IndustrialResearch (CSIR) is likely tostart a helicopter-based elec-tromagnetic survey to identifygroundwater points, map struc-tures, and measure salinity andcontamination among others.

CSIR-National GeophysicalResearch Institute (NGRI),under the Ministry of EarthScience, has already carriedout a heliborne survey in dif-ferent hydrogeological terrainsin Rajasthan (Dausa andJaisalmer), Maharashtra(Nagpur), Karnataka (Tumkur),Tamil Nadu (Cuddalore) andBihar (Patna) covering around3,000 km of area.

“The results of the Rs 25-crore project which was carried

out at the initiative of theMinistry of Water Resourceswere encouraging. We havesubmitted the report to theMinistry,” N PurnachandraRao, chief scientist at NGRI,told The Pioneer recently.

Rao said that they werewaiting for the approval fromthe Centre to kick-off the megasurvey across the country thatwould entail investment ofaround Rs 12,000 crore over thenext ten years.

So far, in India, airbornegeophysical surveys have beenconducted for mineralprospecting and geologicalmapping.

The scientist said that thewater mapping of all the

aquifers beneath the earth willhelp measure water yield, depthof the water to ensure its effi-cient usage and, contaminationlevel which would in turn helpthe Government take preven-tive measures accordingly.

“Once we have the watermap, we can prepare 3D mapstructure to show up to 300metre beneath the surface,” headded.

Talking about the processof conducting the survey, hesaid that a metal coil from thehelicopter is hanged down andusing the electromagnetic sig-natures scientists can makeout if there is groundwater-ifcurrent sails through, it indi-cates presence of water.

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From Page 1It was a professional rela-

tionship..He (Bhandari) cameto meet the minister 3-4 times,in the last one-and-a-half years...It was only a professionalrelation. We got an acquain-tance for the first time at theBangalore Air show. He(Bhandari) had invited theminister to see his stall.Minister went and saw it. Idon’t have any personal rela-tionship,” Rao said.

Investigating agencies have,meanwhile, also indicated thata senior editor too has beenfound to be a frequent caller inthe call detail records of thearms dealer.

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From Page 1He may announce the

formation of the new party inMarwahi, his birthplace onJune 6. “Around 15,000 peo-ple are talking to me person-ally or on phone. I am undertremendous pressure frommy well-wishers, supporters

and fr iends that i fChhattisgarh has to be madefree from Raman Singh, thenI will have to take this bigstep. Otherwise, Raman Singhwill win the State for thefourth time as well since thereis no hope from the Congress,which is playing as B Team ofRaman Singh,” Jogi said.

Jogi’s rebellion, sourcessaid, may also be an indica-tion of the Congress oldguard’s attempt to show dis-satisfaction to work underRahul, when reports suggestthat there could be a genera-tional change in the partyduring the Chintan Shivirsoon.

A senior Congress leadersaid that Jogi’s move mayaffect the unity of the

Congress in other States aswell and the high commandshould not take such rebel-lions causally, misguided bytheir chosen coterie.

Chhattisgarh Congressgeneral secretary ShaileshNitin Trivedi said the partyhas decided to expel Ajit Jogifrom the party.”

The Working Committeeof the Congress has decidedto expel Jogi. His statementsagainst the party are doingharm to the party,” Trivedisaid.

On June 6, Jogi has alsocalled 5,000 of his core sup-porters from all over theState. To a question aboutwhether he talked to the lead-ership in this regard, Jogisaid,” enough of talks have

taken place in last three years.Now there is compulsion.”

Reacting sharply to hisremarks, Jogi’s old rival AICCgeneral secretary DigvijaySingh, former MadhyaPradesh Chief Minister,recal led his role in theAntagarh Assembly bypolland referred to the audiotape regarding “fixing” of theelection by Jogi.

“The manner in whichJogi has sold off Congresscandidate Manturam Pawar tothe BJP is for all of you to see.It is benef icia l for theCongress if such persons leavethe party, who are engaged intrading the declared candidateof Congress for some crores ofrupees,” Singh said.

Soon after the Assam loss,

Singh had called for a majorsurgery required within theparty followed by reactions inbits from others corners —including senior party leaderand the face of party inPunjab Assembly electionsCapt Amarinder Singh, whocouple of days ago, advocat-ed Rahul to take over as theparty chief.

On January 6, crackingthe whip over the issue ofalleged fixing of Antagarhbypoll, the AICC had expelledAmit Jogi for six years andsought a report from the Stateunit on the entire matter.The next day, Chhattisgarhunit of Congress had submit-ted a report to the AICCdemanding “sacking” of AjitJogi.

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From Page 1Girish Sahni, director

general CSIR, called it thebest technology in the worldto map aquifers and that italso can help find spots andsources of contamination ingroundwater. Moreover, it istime saving.

This is for the first time inthe country that an aquifermapping in which Helibornesurvey has been taken up forgroundwater investigations,he added.

NGRI, a constituentLaboratory of CSIR, wasestablished in 1961 with themission to carry out researchin multidisciplinary areas ofearth sciences.

The Institute plays a piv-otal role in the exploration ofhydrocarbons, mineral andgroundwater resources inaddition to studies in engi-neering geophysics and seis-mology among others.

From Page 1The BJP, however, retorted

saying the Sena should stopinterfering in its internal affairsand that the party leadershipwas capable of taking a call onthe issue.

“Eknath Khadse is a seniorleader of the BJP and at a timewhen allegations are beinglevelled against him, he is theonly one answering every-body. The Chief Minister isnot speaking on the issue atall,” Raut told reporters atMumbai.

“The CM should immedi-ately speak on the issue. The

BJP, before coming to power,had promised of corruption-free governance and today seri-ous allegations are being lev-elled against its leader. Thereseems to be inconsistency inthe promises made by the BJP,”he said.

BJP spokesperson MadhavBhandari, however, said thatState party president RaosahebDanve has already backedKhadse over the issue.

The stature of Khadse, whohas been a strong contender forthe Chief Minister’s post, isweighing on the mind of theparty’s leadership, sources said.

Khadse has denied all allega-tions against him with his fol-lowers cautioning against anyaction against their leader,sources said.

Fadnavis had met Khadseon Monday for a discussion. “Itwas expected he may resign onMonday, but he didn’t. The BJPhigh command is mountingpressure. He will have to givein,” said a senior leader request-ing anonymity.

Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal, meanwhile,upped the ante against the BJPsaying Khadse should besacked.

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From Page 1Chief Minister Akhilesh

Yadav expressed grief over theincident and announced anex-gratia of �20 lakh to thefamily of the deceased police-man.

He directed the AdditionalDirector General of Police(Law and Order) to rush to thespot and bring the situationunder control.

He also directed that addi-tional police reinforcement berushed to the area and theguilty be arrested.

Over two years ago,activists of splinter group ofBaba Jai Gurudeo, claimingthemselves to be member of‘Azad Bharat Vidhik VaicharikKranti Satyagrahi’, had occu-pied hundreds of acres of landof Jawahar Bagh on the pretextof ‘dharna’.

Their demands includedcancellation of election ofPresident and Prime Ministerof India, replacement of exist-ing currency with ‘Azad HindFauj’ currency, sale of diesel atthe rate of 60 litres for onerupee and petrol at the rate of40 litres for one rupee.

The high court, acting ona PIL, had recently directed theauthorities to vacate the land.

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President Pranab Mukherjeewas accorded a ceremonial

reception on Thursday on hisarrival in the HimachalPradesh capital on a six-daysojourn.

He was given a guard ofhonour at the Kalyani helipadnear here where GovernorAcharya Devvrat, ChiefMinister Virbhadra Singh andhis cabinet colleagues werepresent to receive him.

Mukherjee would stay atThe Retreat, the president'ssummer holiday resort, just 15km uphill from Shimla whereCongress president SoniaGandhi's daughter PriyankaVadra's cottage is being con-structed. His daughterSharmistha Mukherjee accom-panied him.

Mukherjee will also presideover the convocation of the

Indira Gandhi Medical Collegeand Hospital on Wednesday atPeterhoff, a heritage hotel thatwas first occupied in 1876 bythe then Viceroy, Lord Lytton.

Later in the evening, he

attended the state banquet atRaj Bhawan.

This is his third visit to thehill state after becoming thePresident. He last came here ona five-day visit.

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Punjab Agro IndustriesCorporation chairman Dyal

Singh Kolianwali on Thursdayasked Punjab Congress presi-dent Capt Amarinder Singh totake back all false allegationslevelled against him within 10days or give proof to prove hisaccusation otherwise he wouldbe left with no other optionthan filling a criminal defama-tion case against the latter.

Kolianwali said that CaptAmarinder has levelled baselessallegations against him “underhis well-known policy ofthreatening and defaming hisopponents with malicious pro-paganda”.

Capt Amarinder, a day

before, had alleged Kolianwaliof involving in the allegedrecruitment scam.

Koliawali, who is also pres-ident of Shiromani Akali Dalfor Muktsar rural district, askedCapt Amarinder to learn fromhis past mistakes of threaten-ing his opponents as he hadalready tasted the outcome ofthreats issued by him during2012 polls.

“If a common Akali work-er can put him on mat for histhreats of dealing the oppo-nents with khoonda and dang,than how he can dare to threata district president? CaptAmarinder cannot weaken hislove and dedication for theparty and Badal family resort-ing to such threatening tactics,”he said.

Daring Capt Amarinderto give a single proof againsthim, senior SAD leader saidthat Capt Amarinder shouldnot try to camouflage the mis-deeds of him and his family by

putting blames against braveworkers of SAD.

He dared Capt Amarinderto explain his involvement inAmritsar Improvement Trustscam and Ludhiana City scamand his son’s involvement inIntranet Scam besides tellingtruth about his wife’s blackmoney accounts in Swissbanks.

Describing ‘dharnas’announced by Capt Amarinderas another attempt of a belea-guered 'captain' to save hissinking ship, Kolianwali saidthat Congress party was ondeath-bed and soon be van-ished from the political map ofthe nation.

“It is the reason thatCaptain, who himself wasappearing in one or other courtfor various scams, was trying tomislead the people of the statethrough such political tactics tosave party’s complete washoutin 2017 assembly elections,” hesaid.

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Agroup of Indian envoys onThursday called on

Himachal Pradesh ChiefMinister Virbhadra Singh hereand discussed investmentopportunities in the State.

The envoys which includ-ed High Commissioner toBritain Navtej Singh Sarna,Ambassador to Czech RepublicKrishan Kumar, Ambassador toNiger RS Malhotra andAmbassador to Syria ManMohan Bhanot, were keen toidentify potential investmentopportunities in industries,

tourism, power, health, foodprocessing and infrastructure,said a Government spokesman.

Issues pertaining to airand rail connectivity were alsodiscussed, he said.

The economy of the hillstate is highly dependent onhorticulture and agriculture,besides tourism and hydropower.

Discussions pertaining toopening of small food pro-cessing units were also held.

The main purpose of thevisit was to familiarize and getacquainted with the immensepotential in various sectorsand to attract potentialinvestors, he added.

The delegation would alsointeract with farmers and rep-resentatives of the state tourismdepartment in picturesquetourist spot Chail in Solan dis-trict on Friday.

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Three Ambassadors of Indiato different countries, who

hail from Haryana, made acourtesy call on Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal onThursday.

These ambassadorsincluded Ambassador toSlovak Republic, Param JitMann, Ambassador designateto Republic of Armenia,Yogeshwar Sangwan andAmbassador to Republic ofMali Ajay Kumar Sharma.

They appreciated thedevelopment made byHaryana and were all praise

for auto Hub of Gurgaon,Textiles units of Panipat andthe food processing industryof the state. They also invitedthe entrepreneurs of the stateto set up their ventures inthese countries.

The Chief Minister saidthat it was a matter of pridethat al l these threeAmbassadors belong toHaryana. \

He assured cooperationof the State Government to thethree countries which theyrepresented and directed theconcerned senior officers ofthe State Government toremain in touch with them.

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Dairy major Amul has hikedits milk prices by �1 per

pouch of half liter in the Delhi-NCR region with effect fromFriday.

Amul Managing DirectorRS Sodhi said the decision toincrease the milk prices inDelhi-NCR region is becausethe procurement prices haveincreased by 19-20 per cent inlast two years. He added thatthis is first increase in milkprices in the last two years.

Meanwhile, Mother Dairyclarified that it is not increasingprices of milk for now.

“Mother Dairy, as a respon-sible organisation has alwaysattempted to strike a balancebetween the consumers’ inter-est and the milk producers’interest. As a leading milk sup-plier in Delhi NCR, we are notincreasing the consumer pricesof liquid milk currently. It ispertinent to note that the last

price increase was taken inMay 2014 and we are striving toretain prices while giving com-petitive and remunerative priceto the farmer,” said a MotherDairy spokesperson.

Mother Dairy procuresmilk from farmer centric villagelevel organisations.

“Though the farmer priceshave been increasing over the

past three months due to envi-ronmental temperature, sum-mers and season demand byabout �2.50/kg, Mother Dairyhas been able to absorb theimpact. The prices are likely togo up further in comingmonths. We are keeping a closewatch on the milk availabilityand price situation,” thespokesperson added.

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Delhi University receivedmore than 85 thousand

applications on day second ofthe registration process tothe undergraduate courseson Thursday.

“The huge rush for the

admission to the undergrad-uate courses based on meritcontinues on the second day,with 87,748 online registra-tions done till 6 pm,” saidTarun Kumar Das theRegistrar of the varsity in astatement.

“Of the registered candi-dates, 25,241 completed the

registration form includingthe online fee payment,” hesaid. The online registrationbegan on Wednesday with30,900 applications registeredon the very first day.

The Centralised OpticalMark Recognition (OMR)forms are available on DelhiUniversity’s website - du.ac.in- and students will have tomake the payment throughinternet banking.

The fee for general cate-gory students is Rs 100 where-as for SC/ST students theadmission form is Rs 50.

A total of 60,000 seats invarious undergraduate pro-grammes across 70 colleges ofthe university are up for grab.

The last date for online reg-istration is June 19 and thefirst cut off will be announcedon June 27.

This is for the first timethat the university has intro-duced completely onlineadmission procedure for UGadmissions unlike previousyears when it used to be bothonline and offline.

While “Open Days” coun-selling sessions are being con-ducted to answer admissionrelated queries of parents andstudents, the varsity has alsouploaded an animated video on YouTubedetailing the filling up ofapplication forms and furtherprocess.

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Severe heat wave conditionsprevailed in the national

Capital on Thursday with themercury crossing the 40 degreemark making it tough forDelhiites.

The Safdarjung observato-ry, the reading of which is con-sidered as the official figure forthe city recorded a maximumtemperature of 42.3 degreesCelsius, two notches above theseason’s average while the min-imum temperature settled at30.7 degrees, three notchesabove the normal.

The Palam observatoryregistered a maximum tem-perature of 43.8 degrees

Celsius, said a Met Departmentofficial. Humidity level oscil-lated between 59 and 23 percent. The MeT office has fore-cast clear skies for Friday.

“The skies will be mainlyclear. Dusty haze is likelytowards morning and evening.

“The maximum and min-imum temperatures are likelyto hover at 43 and 30 degreesCelsius respectively,” the weath-erman said.

In a weekly forecast, MeTdepartment predicted thatmaximum temperature willoscillate between 40 degreeCelsius and 42 degree Celsius while minimum tem-perature will remain 30 degreeCelsius.

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The killing of key witnesses inAsaram Bapu’s alleged sex-

ual assault case is now under theSupreme Court’s scrutiny. Theapex court has asked one of hisaccomplices, who is out onbail, to explain how within ayear of release, three crucial wit-nesses were bumped off whilefour others sustained grievousinjuries for testifying against thecontroversial preacher.

On February 10, 2014,Shiva, a co-accused along withAsaram Bapu, was released onbail by the Rajasthan HighCourt. After a fortnight, aprime witness in the Surat rapecase Rakesh Patel was stabbed.A month passed and anotherwitness Dinesh Waghchandaniwas attacked with acid. Twomonths later, another crucialwitness Amrut Prajapati wasshot dead at his clinic. He gaveevidence against the godmanover suspicious death of chil-dren at Asaram’s ashram.

As threatened witnessesshowed grit to testify in courtagainst the godman, the attacks

took a gory turn. In January2015, a key witness in the Suratrape case Akhil Gupta was shotdead in Uttar Pradesh. Ater amonth, one Rahul Sachan whohad testified in the Jodhpur rapecase against Asaram Bapu wasstabbed inside the court premis-es. He survived but is since

missing. A former personalassistant of the godmanMahendra Chawla who hadparted ways following the alle-gations was shot at in Panipat.

Even police officials werenot spared. Such was the terrorunleashed by the godman’s aidesthat an investigating officer

lodged an FIR naming Shiva forthreatening to eliminate hisfamily. The cop was incharge ofthe godman’s security in courtand had refused to yield todemands for allowing theaccused to meet the godman.

Presenting these facts tocourt, an aggrieved father of one

of the victims allegedly raped bythe godman in Jodhpur ashram,said that witnesses including hisfamily were living in fear whileShiva roamed without fear.After the family received con-stant threats, the bad newscame on July 10, 2015 when thevictim’s uncle Kirpal Singh,who testified against the con-troversial godman, was killed byunknown gunmen. In his dyingdeclaration, he blamed Asaram’smen to be behind the crime.

Advocate Kamini Jaiswalwho represented the victim’sfather said that Shiva is the“closest and strongest” aide ofthe jailed godman. With theRajasthan High Court turningdown repeated pleas to grantbail to Asaram Bapu, Shiva ismanaging the empire andensuring witnesses are threat-ened or eliminated, she said.

The Vacation Bench ofJustices PC Ghose and AmitavaRoy has issued notices to theRajasthan Police and theaccused in question who is outon bail to explain if the killingof witnesses should be a groundto cancel the bail. The hearingwill take place on Friday.

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Following recent incidents ofviolence against African

nationals, the Ministry ofExternal Affairs has begun anoutreach programme and aseries of confidence buildingmeasures. Minister of State forExternal Affairs VK Singh willtravel to all metro cities to ini-tiate sensitisation programmesfor both local population andAfrican nationals.

The sensitisation pro-grammes will take place inassociation with the Africanembassies in India. All Africanembassies have been asked togive MEA the list of cities hav-ing higher population of theirnationals. To begin with VKSingh will travel to Bengaluru,Mumbai and Goa and later onto all other metro cities. Singhwill be accompanied by theAfrican envoys.

“Since law and order is astate subjects the sensitisationprogramme will take place inclose association with the localGovernments, police and com-

munities both of Indians andAfricans,” MEA spokespersonVikas Swarup said on Thursday.

Sources in MEA said thatsimilar efforts were made inBengaluru following an attackon Tanzanian nationals and thesituation was found to be bet-ter there now. MEA will alsofrom time to time conduct areview of such programme tosee its effectiveness.

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj had recentlyassured African envoys aboutGovernment’s effort to pre-vent any attacks and denied therecent cases of violence againstthem was racial attack.

The MEA will also set upmechanism to address otherlogistical problems faced byAfrican students such as visas,finding accommodation etc.

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The legal department ofMinistry of

External Affairs(MEA) has soughtsome clarificationsfrom EnforcementDirectorate before pro-cessing the extraditionrequest for former IPLchairman Lalit Modifrom United Kingdom.

“Keeping in mind the sen-sitivity of the case, EnforcementDirectorate has been requestedto intimate their concurrence onthe options and suggestionsmade by the MEA and to adviseus how to proceed further in thematter. Now, we are awaitingcomments of the EnforcementDirectorate,” MEA SpokespersonVikas Swarup said on Thursday.He added that the MEA’s legalexperts have vetted the extradi-tion request, but the formal

request from their side would besent to British authorities onlyafter getting ED’s response.

Modi is facingmoney launderingcharges for which theED wants his presencein India. Last month,ED had requestedMEA to take up withUK the issue of extra-diting Modi. The ED’s

request was examined by MEA’slegal team which raised certainqueries in the matter.

In August last year, the EDhad moved the Interpol for a redcorner notice against Modi butthe international police bodyhas not obliged it as yet.Interpol authorities have, timeand again, sought additionalinformation from ED investi-gators on their money launder-ing case against Modi as part ofthe process to issue a world-wide warrant against him.

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India on Thursday slammedPakistan for organising an

international seminar onKashmir, by saying it is Indiathat has rightful sovereigntyover J&K and there is no glob-al dimension on Kashmir.

“We completely reject theinsinuations by vested interestsagainst India which has rightfulsovereignty over the entire Stateof J&K. We also stress thatthere are no global dimensionsof Kashmir issue except in theminds of those who seek toneedlessly internationalise abilateral matter. Pakistan needsto vacate its illegal occupationof parts of J&K and address thesuffering caused to millions inthose parts,” MEA spokespersonVikas Swarup said on Thursday.

Responding to PakistanPresident Mamnoon Hussain’s

statement in which he accusedIndia of running away fromtalks despite Pakistan’s offer ofjoint-probe in the Pathankotterror attack and mentioningKashmir issue as an “unfinishedagenda of partition” as themain cause of regional tension,the MEA said that “it is notKashmir, but externally spon-sored terrorism from Pakistanwhich is the main issue ofinstability’ between IndiaPakistan relations” and inter-fering in India’s internal affairs.

The Indian side has beenseeking positive steps fromPakistan on the recent terrorattack on Pathankot airbase.India also wants a complete endto terror attack from Pak soilsbefore sitting for talks.

New Delhi: CBI on Thursdayquestioned Hindu JanajagrutiSamiti member VirendrasingTawde whose residence inPanvel near Mumbai wassearched by the agency in con-nection with the murder case ofrationalist Narendra Dabholkar.

The agency had recoveredsome material during its earli-er searches in connection withthe murder case which broughtthe needle of suspicion onTawde, believed to be an ENTsurgeon and an alleged follow-er of ‘Sanatan Sanstha’ SarangAkolkar, against whom RedCorner Notice was issued byInterpol in 2009 Goa blast caseon NIA request, sources said.

The residences of Tawdeand Akolkar were searched bythe agency on Wednesday whichclaimed to have recovered sev-eral SIM cards, cell phones anddata from computer, they said.

They said the two cameunder the scanner after theagency found some “cyberforensic evidence” about theiralleged role in the murder caseof Dabholkar.

Thir ty- four-ye ar-o ldAkolkar is suspected to be oneof the key conspirators in themurder of Dabholkar, a ratio-nalist who fought againstsuperstitions all his life, onAugust 20, 2013 in Pune.

Akolkar is believed to belinked to 'Sanatan Sanstha', aHindu right wing organisa-tion whose headquarters arelocated in Ponda, Goa.

He has been on the runever since his name cropped upduring NIA investigations inthe Goa blast case.

NIA had secured an InterpolRed Corner Notice against himin 2012 but security agencies areyet to track him down. PTI

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While hailing theGovernment’s move to

increase retirement age of thedoctors uniformly across thecountry to 65 years, an umbrel-la organisation of medical pro-fessionals on Thursday saidthat more needs to be done tocheck exodus of the commu-nity to the private sector.

Voicing concern over therecommendations of 7th PayCommission, the JACSDO(Joint Action Council ofService Doctor Organisation)

which represent 11 organisedand unorganised CentralHealth Services (CHS), IndianRailway Medical Services(IRMS), Indian OrdinanceHealth Services (IOHS), MCD,NDMC, Delhi administration,ESIC, urged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to revise itsrecommendations which theytermed were “anti-doctors”.

Rajeev Sood, Chairman ofJACSDO, said “at the same timewe are pained to see the 7th Pay

Commission scuttling the 25years efforts of JACSDO to getvarious committees constitut-ed and procuring their recom-mendations.”

Dr DR Dey, president,JACSDO called for enhance-ment of Non PracticingAllowance to 40 per cent ofbasic pay and restore its statusvis-à-vis basic pay for all pur-pose, including computation ofHRA and pensionary benefits.

Among several other

demands, we also seek expedit-ing the process of creation of adedicated Indian MedicalServices (IMS) Cadre and untilsuch time safeguard the dignityof Medical services by providingequated access to the entitle-ments of Class 1 and above offi-cers as provided for in other AllIndia Services i.e, promotions/perks/protocol, said JACSDOmember Dr Ajay Lekhi, fromEast Delhi MunicipalCorporation and president DelhiMedical Association.

The members of JACSDOalso met Union Health MinisterJP Nadda and Minister of State,PMO, Jitendra Singh onWednesday after the Cabinetmeeting and expressed theirgratitude and also put forththeir demands with regard tothe Pay Commission recom-mendations.

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India and the US on Thursdaysigned a key pact for

exchange of intelligence onterror on a real time basis thatinclude biographic informationof known and suspected ter-rorists. The co-operationarrangement between the Indo-US security and intelligenceagencies for exchange of ter-rorist screening informationwas signed by Union HomeSecretary Rajiv Mehrishi andUS Ambassador to IndiaRichard Verma.

As per this pact, India andthe US will provide each otheraccess to terrorism screeninginformation through the des-ignated contact points, subjectto domestic laws and regula-tions, an official pokespersonsaid. The agreement wouldenhance the counter terrorismcooperation between India andthe US.

With signing of the key

pact, India has formally enteredinto the US Homeland SecurityPresidential Directive-6

(HSPD-6), which will enable itto access ‘unclassified bio-graphic information of known

and suspected terrorists’ main-tained by the US on a recipro-cal basis. The HSPD-6 is a

model text agreement forexchange of terrorist screeninginformation between TerroristScreening Centre (TSC) of theUS and an Indian agency.

There have been severalrounds of discussions betweenthe interlocutors of the twocountries in the past one yearand both sides have narroweddown their differences on sev-eral key issues with the aim ofsigning the pact. The US hasalready finalised such agree-ments with 30 countries.

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Though there is a delay of aweek in the onset of

Monsoon in Kerala, the overallrainfall in the country will beabove normal, said the IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) in its second stage fore-cast on Thursday. The nation-al monsoon forecaster said thereis zero per cent probability ofdeficient monsoon this year.

Releasing the second long-range forecast, IMD DirectorGeneral Laxman Singh Rathore,stated, “Expect monsoon rainsto hit Kerala in 4-5 days, whichwill hence proceed further overBay of Bengal in next 48 hours.”

As per the IMD regionwise figures , Central and SouthPeninsula will receive the high-est rainfall of 113 per cent ofLong Period Approach (LPA),followed by 108 per cent of nor-mal in North-West India. TheNorth-East on the other handwill receive 94 per cent ofLPA, all with a model error of

plus-minus 8 per cent.According to the weather

scientists, El Nino conditionshave turned neutral and mov-ing into negative zone. There is50 per cent chance of La Ninataking over during monsoon.

In this situation, quantita-tively, the monsoon seasonalrainfall is likely to be 106 percent of the Long Period Average(LPA) with a model error ofplus-minus 5 per cent. Themonthly rainfall over the coun-try as whole is likely to be 107

per cent of its LPA during Julyand 104 per cent of LPA duringAugust both with a model errorof plus-minus 9 per cent. Thereare 96 per cent chances of nor-mal-to-excess rainfall from Juneto September.

Meanwhile, IMD has fur-ther predicted that heavy rainand thunderstorms were likelyover Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand,West Bengal, North-East andcoastal Andhra Pradesh duringthe next couple of days.

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Giving a national outlook tothe JD(U), its national

president Nitish Kumar onThursday held first ever meet-ing of the national executiveand also met people comingfrom other parts of the coun-try to join the JD(U).

Even though it has been asetback for the party as theRashtriya Lok Dal walked outof the talks for merger and itspresident Ajit Singh preferreda different path, a little knownUP-based party Akhand SamajParty has decided to mergewith the JD(U).

Party’s national presidentHiralal Saini held talks withNitish and praised him forenforcing total prohibition andreservation for the EBCs. Hesaid his party will merge withthe JD(U) and fight UPAssembly polls under the lead-ership of Nitish.

Abdul Aziz Khan fromManipur also met CM NitishKumar and by joining theJD(U), revived old memories ofthe Samata Party, of which hewas a leading member in

Manipur, where the party onceformed Government.

JD(U) general secretaryKC Tyagi said the November2015 mandate, in favour ofNitish and allies in Bihar, wasnot only for Bihar but was alsoto send a strong positive signalacross the country. This wasalso a message to the peopleand the parties that no singleparty in the country was inposition to form Governmentin any State or in Centre byitself. The like minded with sec-ular orientation have cometogether to defeat the BJP andits allies.

Tyagi said, “It were not usbut the leaders of other parties,including BJP’s Sushil KumarModi, who called Nitish a PMmaterial. The JD(U) never pro-jected Nitish as PM candidatebut an atmosphere is beingmade in the country where peo-

ple have started realising that inthe present scenario, only Nitishcan lead the country. Some par-ties have also realised it andmany more will soon.” He alsosaid that Charan Singh,Chandrashekhar, HD DeveGowda and IK Gujral becamePM because of the political sit-uation of those times andnobody can deny that such a sit-uation would not emerge again.

"Nitish will create anatmosphere all over the coun-try against BJP and for the for-mation of non-BJPGovernment. He will travel todifferent parts of the countrywith this aim," Tyagiannounced. However, hedenied possibility of the emer-gence of any third front.

A delegation of KisanManch, a front of the farmerslaunched by former PrimeMinister V P Singh called onNitish and top leaders VinodSingh and Shekhar Dikshitjoined the JD(U).

However the party hasdecided to maintain the iden-tity of Kisan Manch and treatit as party's frontal organisa-tion, said Tyagi.

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After evading arrest for overthree weeks, the main

accused in the murder of Siwanjournalist Rajdeo Ranjan sur-rendered in a court of ChiefJudicial Magistrate in Siwan onThursday.

Laddan Mian, a notori-ous criminal of UP, who issusp ec ted to had b eeninvolved in the conspiracy ofthe scribe’s murder on May13, is believed to be close toRJD strongman and fiveterm MP MohammadShahabuddin.

The former MP who wasin Siwan district jail for overa decade, has recently beenshifted to Bhagalpur Centraljail.

Laddan Mian, who is onbail, asserted that he hadnothing to do with the jour-nalist's murder. But the fivesharp shooters arrested bythe police last week, had indi-cated the involvement ofMian, who came out of jail onApril 27. The police claimedthat Mian with his family, fled

two hours before the killing.

The CJM (Chief JudicialMagistrate) forwarded him tojudicial custody for 14 days.

The police had launched asearch operation to arrest himbut failed.

The Bihar Governmenthad forwarded the Siwan jour-nalist murder case to the CBI.

The Central agency took overthe probe a day earlier and thepolice handed over all the rel-evant documents to the sleuthsof the CBI.

One day prior to this,there had been rumours inSiwan that Laddan Mian waskilled in a police encounter onBihar-UP border at NandpurVillage.

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Telangana, the youngest Stateof Indian union, on

Thursday celebrated its secondanniversary with a lots of colour,pomp and style as the ChiefMinister K Chandrashekar Raoassured the people that his two-year-old Government was mov-ing fast towards the goal of the“Golden Telangana”.

Hoisting of country’sbiggest national f lag inHyderabad and laying a foun-dation stone for the memorialof those who laid their livesduring the six decades longstruggle for separate TelanganaState and announcement ofcreating 15 new districts byredrawing the State’s mapmarked the day.

KCR, as the Chief Ministeris well known, said that duringthe first two years theGovernment strove hard tosolve the problems of the peo-ple and lay a strong foundationof the State to build a secureand bright future of the State.

After holding the ceremo-nial parade at theSecunderabad Parade Groundsand taking the salute fromvarious police contingents inthe presence of his Cabinet col-leagues and top officials, theChief Minister revealed hisroad map for the coming years.

Faster economic growthand increasing the State budget

to �5 lakh crore by year 2024,irrigating 1 crore acres by 2022and hundred per cent literacyin the near future were some ofthe important targets KCR setbefore the administration andthe people.

"Telangana movement wasa fire born out of water", KCRsaid quoting the famousTelangana ideologue ProfJayashankar emphasising thatthe crores of people of theregion struggled for the waterand other natural and financialresources for decades.

Paying emotional tributesto the people who laid downtheir lives for Telangan State, hesaid that the people ofTelangana were indebted tothem.

"We have already givenappointment letters ofGovernment jobs to the fami-lies of 598 martyrs", he said.

In a sharp attack on thedecades long Governments of

united Andhra Pradesh dom-inated by Andhra people, KCRsaid, "In the united AndhraPradesh we had to beg for everysingle rupee but now we areutilising our own resources onour own development".

Expressing his satisfactionover the pace of developmentand progress over the last years,the Chief Minister said that hisgovernment was working hardto fulfill the aspirations anddreams of the people.

KCR said that in the unit-ed AP era Telangana wasneglected and it lagged behindin every field including educa-tion. "But in a few years we willbecome a hundred percent lit-erate state", he said. The StateGovernment has started 250residential schools for thescheduled castes, tribes and theminorities and emphasis wasbeing laid on providing quali-ty education and skill upgra-dation.

He said his dream was thatno woman should walk on theroads looking for drinkingwater. "By the end of 2018 hun-dred percent villages of thestate will get safe drinkingwater through the MissionBhagirath", he said.

He also criticised neigh-boring Andhra Pradesh oversharing river waters saying for

decades Andhra rulers haddiverted Telangana's share ofriver waters to Andhra byneglecting the irrigation projects.

"Despite having riversKrishna and Godavari andKakatiya canal Telangana hassuffered so much for water

Because of the neglect ofthe rulers of united AndhraPradesh canals of Kakatiya erahad dried up and destroyed butthe Telangana Government hasnow launched Mission Kakatiyato restore them, he said.

"Even now inter-State dis-putes and environmental issueswere being raised to createobstacles in our path but wehave re designed our projectsto ensure irrigation for onecrore acres", he said.

Assembly speakerMadhusudhan Chary and sev-eral Ministers and Legislators

were also present.In the morning KCR paid

floral tributes to the Telanganamovement Martyrs at the GunPark memorial

In the afternoon at animpressive official function atthe Hyderabad InternationalConvention Center the ChiefMinister KCR presented awardsto the prominent activists,artists, writers, journalists andother noted personalities.

Speaking on the occasion, hesaid that the dream of Telanganabecame a reality because of thestruggle of crores of people. Forthe last two years the state wasmoving on the path of develop-ment its growth rate was fasterthan the national average "Withthis rate of growth the state bud-get will reach �200,000 crore by2019-20 and �500,000 crore byyear 2024.

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The skyline of Hyderabadabove the picturesque

Hussain Sagar Lake hasbecome more colorful withcountry’s biggest flag flutteringatop a sky-kissing pole at arecord height of 88 meters.

The national flag with agigantic size of 108 in width by72 feet in length was hoisted bythe Chief Minister KChandrashekar Rao on windyThursday morning markingthe second anniversary of theformation of Telangana State.

The new tourist attractionin Sanjeevaiah Park on thebank of Hussain Sagar lake,which cost the state govern-ment �1.8 crore, narrowlymissed the feat of being thetallest flag in the country. Therecorded will continue tobelong to the 82 meters highflagpole of Raipur, the capitalof Chattisgarh.

After hoisting the flagmechanically in view of itsimmense weight of 65 kilo-grams, the Chief Minister KChandrasekhar Rao expressedhope that it will instill thespirit of nationalism amongthe people. Describing it as asymbol of pride, the ChiefMinister said, "the height ofthe flag resembles the ambi-tion of Telangana state tosoar high".

While the spot where the

flagpost has come up hasbecome the instant hit with thevisitors and the tourists, manyof whom were seen busy tak-ing selfies with the huge flagfluttering in the background,the best view of the flag couldbe seen from Tank Bund,across the Hussain Sagar lake,about five kms away.

Original ly the StateGovernment was keen to havecountry's tallest flagpole witha height of 303 feet or 93meters but it had to be

reduced because of the oppo-sition from the AirportsAuthority of India as it waslikely to interfere with the air-crafts flying over the city.

However there were stillconfusion over the exactheight of the flag of Hyderabadas the officials claimed variedfrom 80 meters to 85 meters.Only after the issue was set-tled will it become clearwhether Hyderabad was thewinner or Raipur will con-tinue to fly high !

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TR Pachamuthu (also knownas Paarivendhar), owner

of SRM University, a leadingprivate university in the coun-try, finds himself in a contro-versy following the disappear-ance of his close associate SMadhan, since May 28.

Sindhu, second wife ofMadhan, filed a complaint withthe Anna Nagar Police Stationin the city on Thursday statingthat she has some suspicionsabout the reasons behind thedisappearance of Madhan. Thiscomes closely behind the casefiled by Sumalatha, his firstwife, at the VirugambakkaamPolice Station in the cityexpressing her fears about thedisappearance of Madhan.

Madhan, in his late 30s, isthe managing director ofVendhar Movies, one of thebusiness enterprises owned byPachamuthu. In addition to hisbusiness enterprises,Pachamuthu is also the founderpresident of Indian JananayagaKatchi, a political outfit whichis a constituent of the BJP-ledNational Democratic Alliancein Tamil Nadu. A letter report-edly written by Madhan to hisclose associates said that he wason his way to Kashi seeking sal-vation from the mundane life.

Adding suspense and spiceto the disappearance ofMadhan, three persons includ-

ing two students, filed com-plaints with the City PoliceCommissioner on Thursdayalleging that Madhan had col-lected �200 crore from manystudents and their parentsassuring them of admissions invarious colleges under the SRMUniversity owned byPachamuthu.

Many students staged ademonstration in front of theChennai residence ofPachamuthu, who is also theChancellor of the SRMUniversity on Wednesday.Some of the students and theirparents pointed out thatPachamuthu wields enormouspower both in Chennai and inNew Delhi. "He was seen shar-ing the stage with PrimeMinister Narendra Modi dur-ing the latter's election cam-paign in Tamil Nadu," said oneof the parents.

The SRM Group isengaged in business enterpris-es like educational institutions,hotels, transport, publications,film production and media ina big way.

Puthiya Thalamurai, theTV channel owned by theSRM Group is actively cam-paigning for the rights of theTamils in northern Sri Lanka.The local media were full ofreports about the internal fightbetween Pachamuthu and hissons over the former's closenessto Madhan.

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Continuing with its tirade tobring Dalits into the party

fold, BJP president Amit Shahwill address a SwabhimanMaha Sammelan at the BhimRao Ambedkar Universityauditorium in Lucknow onSaturday.

The function which will beattended by the members of SC/ ST Cell.

State BJP secretaryVirendra Tiwari said that apartfrom Shah and party Statechief Keshav Prasad Maurya,senior leaders belonging toSC/ST caste would attend theMaha Sammelan. “Law makersof SC / ST have also been invit-ed to the rally. Dalits belongingto Pasi, Kori, Dhanuk casteswould attend this Sammelan,"he said.

The BJP is trying hard towean away Dalits from the BSPand bring them to the party-fold. Earlier this week, Shahhad broken bread with Dalitsand Backwards in Allahabad,drawing sharp reaction fromChief Minister Akhilesh Yadavand BSP president Mayawati.

Tiwari however said thatDalits have always been a bigsupport group for the BJP. “Inthe last Lok Sabha polls, theBJP won 71 seats only becausethe community voted en blockfor the party. In the same elec-tion Mayawati’s BSP drewblank, which is a clear indica-tion that Dalits are no longerwith the BSP,” he said.

The BJP leader said thatBSP has always used Dalits asa mere vote bank while in theBJP they are treated as equals."This Sammelan would talkabout their Swabhiman. Now,Dalits also know that only theBJP can protect their interest,"he said.

On the other hand, the BSPand the Samajwadi Party lead-ership has called Amit Shah’sattempt to lure Dalits a politi-cal drama.

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In a major setback to the prime project of theState Government, lion Kuber died on

Thursday morning at the Lion Safari at Etawah.The Lion had been suffering from canine dis-temper since April 16 at the Safari for which itwas being treated. Forest officials confirmed thedeath of the animal and said that the carcass hadbeen sent to IVRI Bareilly for post-mortemwhich will give the exact cause of the death.Kuber was the youngest of all the lions and theninth one to have died at the Safari and had beenbrought from Rajkot.

Talking to The Pioneer a senior forest offi-cial from the Lion Safari said, ‘Lion Kuber diedin the morning. He had been suffering fromcanine distemper for the past one and halfmonths. The lion was being treated by the

experts from the IVRI, Deen Dayal UpadhayaVeteniary University and Research CentreMathura”. Currently the lion safari is left withseven lions” he said. With the death of Kuberthe death toll of lions increases since the timethe big cats were transferred to the Safari. Theofficial said that a total four adults lions and five

lion cubs have died at the Safari.A Senior scientist from IVRI while talking

to The Pioneer said that the canine distemperwas a disease that occured mostly in dogs. “Thisis a viral disease and is transferred through con-tact or through bites of the carrier animal andbrings about a complete breakdown of theimmune system and impacts the nervous sys-tem too” he said. When asked why the animalhad died when he was being treated for the same,the scientist said, ‘The treatment is merely symp-tomatic wherein the treatment is done only ofthe symptoms that appear and there is still novaccine for the disease” said the scientist.

Meanwhile regarding the condition of theother lions the official said, ‘It was only the lionKuber who was suffering from the canine dis-temper while the other lions had tested nega-tive for the same disease when these tests were

conducted by the IVRI”.Incidentally the Forest Department had

made efforts to prevent the spread of the dis-ease amongst the other lions in the past fewmonths. “There was a drive to vaccinate all thestray dogs within the vicinity of the Safari” hesaid. The Forest official refused to commentwhen asked whether the Lion Safari was suit-able for the lions. The Lion Safari, one of themajor projects, has been through severalhurdles in the past. Envisaged at the time ofthe Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Government in2005 the Safari as an idea was given up becauseof the presence of prosopis at the FischerForests where the Safari was being construct-ed which was not condusive to the Lions.However since the time Akhilesh Yadav cameto power as the Chief Minister, the project wasrevived with gusto.

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Ahead of Assembly polls in 2018Karnataka Chief Minister

Siddaramaiah has sought the help ofIndian diplomats to bring more FDI(Foreign Direct Investment) to State.Addressing the two day interaction meet-ing with the Indian ambassadors and HighCommissioners to seven countries inBengaluru on Thursday he said the Statewas seeking FDI to promote its port withTadadi Port on the West Coast being verystrategic for Karnataka and it had beenworking towards developing this on aPublic Private Partnership basis.

Similarly, the State was taking up pro-jects to improve rail connectivity with equi-ty participation from State Governmentand railway projects on PPP mode. He alsosought the help of the diplomats to bringhigher quantum of FDI into sectors likeinfrastructure, industry clusters, portsand railways.

He said that India's economy haspicked up great pace in the last 10 yearsafter liberalisation and globalisation andthis has also led to high growth of IndianStates. Chief Minister reiterated thatKarnataka has consistently ranked amongstthe top States of the country since 1991 andover the years the State has been regard-ed as being the most technology friendlyand forward thinking States in India.

He said that since last couple of years,

Karnataka ranks third in attracting ForeignDirect Investment (FDI) across all States. Wehave also been ranked as one of the mostattractive States for investment. Last year,Gross Domestic Product of Karnataka grewat seven per cent to reach US$ 120 Billion.

"we have focused on create large scaleemployment by promoting industrialgrowth, moving industry to all parts of theState including the most backward regionsand focus on improving on the socio-eco-nomic health of all the residents in the Stateincluding the most disadvantaged", headded.

Karnataka's export is 48 per centagainst a national average of 24 per cent.Karnataka's share in all India exportsstands at 13 per cent and it accounts for40 per cent of all software exports from thecountry.

" We have a thriving NRI Forum inKarnataka which constantly interacts withour diaspora in all parts of the world. Infact, during the recently concluded 'Invest

Karnataka 2016' in February, we had anexcellent NRI session which deliberated onconnecting our diaspora back to theirroots," he added.

He said "We have focused on three keyelements: Create large scale employmentby promoting industrial growth, movingindustry to all parts of the state includingthe most backward regions of the state andfocus on improving on the socio-economichealth of all the residents."

J S Mukul, Ambassador of India toNetherlands, SanjivKohli, HighCommissioner of India to New Zeland,Nandini Singla, Ambassador-designateof India to Portugal, Ruchi Ghanashyam,High Commissioner of India to SouthAfrica and Kingdom of Lesotho, RadhikaL Lokesh, Ambassador of India to Ireland,Vikram K Doraiswamy, Ambassador ofIndia to Korea, Gaurav Shrestha, HighCommissioner of India to Mozambique aretaking part in the two day InteractionMeeting.

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Chief Minister AkhileshYadav sought help from

nine Indian ambassadors todifferent countries during ameeting on Thursday urgingthem to project UP as a ‘brand’globally to encourage invest-ment in the State.

These Ambassadors are ona three-day visit to Lucknow tostudy the scope of investmentin UP and the delegation metGovernor Ram Naik at RajBhawan earlier.

Indian ambassadors VinodKumar (Uzbekistan), RajeshKumar (Bulgaria), Ajay Bisaria(Poland), Indra Mani Pandey(Oman), Saurabh Kumar(Iran), Sushil Kumar (Angola),Nagma M Mallik (Brunei) andSubhdarshani Tripathi (Jordan)met the CM at his official res-idence and discussed in detailthe possibility of investmentsfrom these countries.

“You are representing Indiain different countries. ProjectUP as a brand so that people

across globe show their inter-est in investing in the state,”said the Chief Minister.

As a hard bargainer, Yadavsaid that UP has high potentialof export in agri-products,handicrafts, leather productsand jewellery. Besides, there isadequate scope for eco andmedical tourism. This willopen a new job market for peo-ple in the State, Yadav said.

“Being the most populousState of India, UP is a big mar-ket. Realising the investmentpotential, the State

Government has prepared sec-tor-wise friendly investmentpolicy. The infrastructure isbeing improved. New roads arecoming up to shorten the com-muting time. Power problemsare being solved so that domes-tic and industry sectors couldget quality electricity,” he said.

The CM spoke aboutMetro Rail coming up in dif-ferent cities, setting up of sugarmills and linking youth to thedigital world.

“Farmers are beingexposed to modern technolo-

gy so that they can get goodproduce. A perfume park iscoming up in Kannauj. Hi-techcities are coming up in differ-ent parts including Allahabad,Kanpur, Unnao and Lucknow,"the CM said.

Indian Ambassador toUzbekistan, Vinod Kumar saidthat there is high probability ofcotton processing, yarn andtourism while Ambassador toBulgaria, Rajesh Kumar saidthat there was possibility of ironprocessing, IT, agriculture pro-duction, and tourism. AjayBisaria (Poland) said hisembassy will extend all help toState officials.

Indra Mani Pandey (Oman)spoke on link between India andpeople from east UP and sug-gested that literature in Hindiand Bhojpuri should be provid-ed to the embassy to populariseUP’s projects among them.

Saurabh Kumar (Iran)talked about Shia link betweenLucknow and Iran. Ambassaforto Brunei offered help in IT andagriculture processing.

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The bureaucrats in Bengalhave gone in a kind of tizzy

with the Trinamool CongressGovernment making a largenumber of transfers: Some in"absurd fashion."

While four IPS officers —who had allegedly acted “with-out bias” during the Assemblyelections following the ElectionCommission directives — havebeen sent to “compulsory wait-ing” with no specific chargeand office so to say a numberof IAS officers have beenawarded comparatively lesssignificant postings.

However the most remark-able among them seem to be theposting of Indivar Pandey thePrincipal Secretary, PWD.Pandey has been asked to con-tinue on the post with additionalcharge but at the same time he

has been transferred as theResident Commissioner inDelhi leading some of his col-leagues to wonder how an offi-cer can function from two States.

While sources at the Statesecretariat at Nabanna said"this is only a temporaryarrangement" inside sourcessaid Pandey has incurred thewrath of the certain vestedinterests in the Governmentinviting for himself the difficultassignment.

"In the new scheme ofthings he will have to workboth from Delhi and Kolkata.But how is it possible?" an IAS

officer said wondering "howmuch has one to bend back-wards to please them."

The Nabanna sources how-ever said Pandey could workfrom Delhi for a week and thencome back to Kolkata andwork from here for the remain-ing three weeks. "Whatever bethe scheme of things, it seemsunprecedented," a senior offi-cial said.

Besides, Pandey a host ofother officials including KhalilAhmed, Sanjay Bansal, BPGopalika, Subrata Biswas andothers have been transferredfrom their respective posts.

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Amassive fire broke out atMetro House, a Victorian-

era building located on theShahid Bharat Singh Road —better known as ColabaCauseway — in downtownsouth Mumbai on Thursday,prompting the fire brigade per-sonnel to undertaken massiveextinguishing operation.

After more than two hoursof extinguishing operation, thefire brigade officials containedthe fire to the uppermost storeyof the four-storey building,which is located near Regal the-atre, a landmark of Mumbai. Bylate evening, the fire brigadeofficials had succeeded in dous-ing the fire completely.

There were no casualties orinjuries in the mishap, which

was graded as level-0three fire.The fire originated at

around 4 pm on the fourthfloor of Metro house wheresome inflammatory materialswere reportedly stocked. Given

that the building has old stair-cases, the fire spread fast.

Before long, thick clouds ofsmoke started billowing fromthe terrace of the Metro House,a prominent building that

houses Cafe Mondegar, a pop-ular eatery, McDonalds andMetro Plaza shopping arcade,a mall. The smoke could beseen by people in nearby areaslike Churchgate and NarimanPoint.

Having received the call at4.03 pm, the city fire brigaderushed 12 fire tenders to thespot. The Naval Dockyard ofWestern Naval Command toorushed four fire tenders toassist the civilian authorities indousing the blaze.

Given that the fire brokeout on a busy road, the ColabaCauseway was closed to bothtraffic and public for at leastthree hours. The causeway hasboth shops and homes and isclose to landmarks like theGateway of India and Taj Hotel.

Though the fire brigadepersonnel suspected that ashort-circuit might have trig-gered fire , the authorities havenot established the exact ofmishap.

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One person was blown into smithereens andquite a few others injured when a stockpile

of bombs kept in an anganwadi centre atLokpur went off in the wee hours of Thursday,police said.

The blast was so intense, that the wholebuilding collapsed under its impact and largeshreds of concrete were blown away more thana hundred feet away, sources said. Some near-by houses were also damaged due to the blast.

This is the fourth such blast in the area inthe past one year or so. “We have demanded anNIA probe into the incident as there is more thatmeets the naked eye, a local reluctant to sharehis name, said. The police however ruled out anybigger conspiracy saying what went off, was onlya stockpile of crude bombs.

A blast had killed two persons on January15 at Dubrajpur in the same district even as theywere making bombs apparently to be used in thejust-concluded elections. The police subse-quently recovered a huge amount of ammuni-tion from the spot.

Similarly two persons were left dead at thesame Lokpur in February this year and someothers were injured when a stock-pile of bombskept inside a Trinamool Congress panchayat

member’s house went off. Among the dead werethe panchayat member himself.

A Trinamool Congress member and his wifewere killed in a bomb blast in a village nearBolpur town in May last year when crude bombskept inside their house went off.

Bengal has been under the NIA scanner sincethe October 2 blast in 2014 when two Bangladeshiterrorists were killed while making bombs. Theyhad rented a house belonging to a local Trinamoolleader. Initially the police had ruled the blast outas one triggered by the local goons and thingsbecame clear when the NIA stepped in.

Blasts had been taking place in many dis-tricts of Bengal. A dreaded explosion allegedlyat a cracker factory killed 16 persons at Pinglain West Midnapore in 2015.

Not only in the interior areas but also back inthe Khiderpore area of Capital Kolkata the policelast Monday busted a bomb-making factory.

Following a tip-off the police unearthed agun factory along with gun powder, a black baga few mobile chips and circuits.

On Thursday the villagers of Lokpurdemanded an NIA investigation alleging “we areliving in great agony. Outsiders come to the vil-lage and go silently. They work suspiciously withpolitical backing. There is a need that the NIAtakes these cases up.”

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T h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m :Kerala Government has pro-posed to bring in restrictionson parading elephants in tem-ples and other festivities,Minister for Forest andAnimal Husbandry K Rajusaid here on Thursday.

“The Government is of theview that certain restrictions onparading elephants during fes-tivities is necessary,” Raju toldreporters here while statingthat general guidelines withconditions would be formulat-ed for allowing elephants totake part in festivals and otherfunctions after discussions.

He said the Governmentwould ensure that the ownersof all the captive jumbos havethe required licence.

On the Government’s pri-ority to protect and preserveforest areas in the State, Raju

said encroachment would notbe allowed and another majorinitiative would be to completethe solar fencing works in thefringe areas to check man-animal conflicts.

"Necessary funds for erect-ing solar fencing would beearmarked in the LDFGovernment budget to be pre-sented in the house," he added.

Government also has anambitious plan to produce anti-rabies vaccine at the BiologicalInstitute and Rabies Vaccine atnearby Palode, he said.

"The Government's aim isto start anti-rabies vaccinewithin next three years", hesaid.

On milk production in thestate, the minister said stepsalso would be taken to see to itthat Kerala becomes self-suffi-cient in milk PTI

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Uneasy and hostile rela-tions with Pakistanhave constrainedIndia’s ability to devel-op closer economic

and political ties with CentralAsia. When the Soviet Union col-lapsed in 1991, the five republics inCentral Asia, namely Kazakhstan,the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan,Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan werein a state of significant disorder.These were the states which weretotally ill-prepared for nationhoodafter having been absorbed by theRussian empire in the 18th and the19th century. They were then inneed of substantial knowledge andexpertise on governance issuesand development policies.

However, India’s response tothis need was slow and inadequatenot only because of the physical andpolitical barriers that existed witha hostile Pakistan and a troubledwar-torn Afghanistan, but alsobecause historically, India has sel-dom seriously engaged with soci-eties across the Himalayan range.Yet, it is now, more than ever before,in India’s interest to develop clos-er economic, cultural and politicalties with that region. After all, as thecrow flies these countries are asclose to New Delhi, for instance,Hyderabad in some cases andBangalore in other cases.

It is in this context that theprospect of the early completionof the Chabahar port, as an out-come of Prime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Iran, holds greatsignificance. While this port givesIndia access to the Central AsianRepublics (CARs) by-passingPakistan, if this opportunity isseen in its wider sense, it can actu-ally help improve relations withPakistan as well. It certainly holdsthe potential for a substantialimprovement in the relationshipwith Iran, which has not beenwithout some strain during thepast few years when Iran wasplaced under sanctions onaccount of its nuclear activities.

However, the mere construc-tion of the port and the provisionof various facilities will not assuresuccess of this venture. For theport to function in an economi-cally viable manner, in a businesssense, it will have to generateenough business through tradewith the CARs and other coun-tries and trade as well as develop-ment assistance activities withAfghanistan. For India and Iran,Chabahar presents a win-winopportunity for coordinatedactions in areas of mutual inter-est. While the benefits for Indiaare evident, in the case of Iran,

there is both economic as well aspolitical dimension which isattractive. First, trade betweenIndia and eastern Iran is likely togrow and more importantly, thetwo countries can work togetherfor an all-round developmentand peace in Afghanistan. Anydisturbance in Afghanistan hasdirect spillover impacts on Iran.In the past India and Iran coop-erated in supporting the NorthernAlliance in Afghanistan, andboth countries see the Taliban asa threat for the elimination ofwhich they will be able to workfar more effectively together oncethe Chabahar link is established.

The major benefit ofChabahar, however, is in the eas-ier access that it will provide forIndia to develop much strongerties with the CARs. But this willnot happen without major effortson part of the Government ofIndia and other stakeholders inthe country. On May 25 and May26 this year, Kazakhstan held theannual Astana Economic Forum,which drew leaders from politicsand business from all over theworld, but India was conspicuousby its absence. India has some

outstanding leaders of business,but there was not one fromamong them present at that event.

In contrast, Jack Ma, thefounder and chairman of AlibabaGroup from China had a promi-nent role on the agenda of theforum, speaking in the same ses-sion as Kazakhstan PresidentNursultan Nazarbayev.

Kazakhstan is undertakingambitious transformation of itseconomy in response to the fall inglobal prices of oil and othercommodities, which in the pastprovided substantial revenues tofuel rapid growth of its economy.This is a nation which has a smallpopulation but a vast area of land.India can play an important roleto help improve Kazakhstan’sagriculture, harness its substan-tial renewable energy resourcesand expand its industrial base toadd value to the large amount ofmineral and other resources thatthe country possesses.

The CARs are also an impor-tant component of China’s effortsto revive the old Silk Route andextend its trade and sphere of influ-ence. Of all these nations,Kazakhstan has registered the most

impressive growth in economy, andChina has already emerged as animportant trading partner. It hasdeveloped access into the oil, nat-ural gas, minerals and other impor-tant sectors of the Kazakh econo-my. Yet, there is a certain uneasi-ness about China’s role and prox-imity and related concerns, whichprominent persons in that countryhave expressed quite freely.

China has created the ShanghaiCooperation Organisation (SCO),which includes apart from Chinaand Russia, all the five CARs.President Nazarbayev in his speechat the AEF, stated, “Today, we arefacing the creation of the Asia-Pacific bloc with the United States,we hear about the talks on theupcoming negotiations and agree-ments of Europe-America. We arecreating the SCO in the CentralAsian and Eurasian region. At themeeting, in June, we will probablyconsider the question on the admis-sion of India and Pakistan and pos-sibly Iran to the organisation. Thepopulation of the SCO will totalthree billion.” If this grouping wereto expand as proposed, thenChabahar will provide India accessto this large group of countriesincluding western Pakistan.

Against this background, it isimportant for India to develop aclear road map and plan of actionwhich also includes trade withPakistan through the port atChabahar. This will also be anappropriate occasion for seriousreappraisal and implementation ofthe Iran- Pakistan-India natural gaspipeline which was first proposedby this writer in 1989 along with AliShams Ardekani of Iran, who laterbecame that country’s DeputyForeign Minister.

It will be a limiting view totreat Chabahar as only a means toby-pass Pakistan for gainingaccess to Central Asia. This spe-cific development has to be eval-uated in its entirety to fully esti-mate the economic and politicalpayoff it can generate for the entireregion. In doing so it will becomeevident that India and Iran willnot be the only party to benefitfrom this project. That will thenprovide a basis for taking all thesteps that will be a prerequisite toensure that the benefits envisagedare actually achieved, and thecapacity of the port utilised fullyfor the benefit of the region as awhole. In some sense Chabaharcan be a game changer for SouthAsia, Central Asia, Iran and evenChina, if each party sees stakes foritself in this particular project.

(The writer is former chairman, TERI)�

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Ammunations ablaze” (June 2).The tragic accident at the ammu-nition depot at Pulgaon points tothe inherent deficiencies and flawsin our military’s storage capabili-ty. The Army is already reelingunder shortage of ammunition.Moreover, this incident will givewrong signals to our neighbours.

Safety and security of ourammunition depots must be the toppriority. Rather than one big depot,there should be multiple depotscatering to the requirement of spe-cific commands. Nuclear and bal-listic missile systems must be storeddeep underground and separatelyfrom ordinary ammunition.

Gaurav SinghalRewari

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Sir — This refers to the report,“CM Akhilesh doubts forensicreport” (June 2). Uttar PradeshChief Minister Akhilesh Yadavmust remember that the sample ofthe meat was sent for test in a lab-oratory situated in his own State,and not in a BJP-ruled State.

If he does not take the reporton face value, it shows that all is not

well in his own State. Yadav mustnot protect the killers of Akhlaqand let the law take its own course.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Sir — This refers to the report,“Achchhe din for economy as GDPgrows by 7.6%” (June 1). A growthrate at 7.9 per cent in the fourthquarter and an overall 7.6 per centin the financial year 2015-2016, asagainst the projected 7.2 per cent,is the fastest growth rate in majoreconomies of the world. It vindi-cates World Bank chief Jim YongKim’s observation that in times ofglobal economic recession India isa shining star.

Obviously, the ModiGovernment’s reform initiativeshave started bearing fruits inspite of the hurdles created by theOpposition, particularly theCongress, which has beenobstructing crucial Bills like theGoods and Services Tax Bill,even as its implementation canboost the growth rate by one percent to two per cent. Achche dinfor the economy are here withintwo years and still there are threemore years left.

MC JoshiLucknow

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Viewing Savarkar in a new light”(June 1). It is a shame that today,few Indians know about greatrevolutionaries like Surya Sen,Bagha Jatin, Kanailal Dutta,Khudiram Bose, Kalpana Dattaand Pritilata Waddedar. The lifestory and heroic death of each ofthem inspired thousands of othersto join the freedom struggle, inspite of the threat of gallows, bul-lets and inhuman torture.Hopefully, India’s history will be re-written in the near future.

Kumar Via web

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“The African connect” (June 1).The racial attack on the Congoleseyouth is an embarrassment for thenation. Such an attack not only vio-lates our laws but gives the peopleof India a bad name. The socialevils of discrimination and racismmust be eradicated.

Sweta SankrityanDelhi

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Adifferent kind of animalspirit has been unleashed inthe more or less static Indian

economy. Actually, I need to para-phrase — lethal carnivores whowere hidden under the carpet —and the bulge that was getting ugli-er day-by-day have been intro-duced into the system. It is to dowith Reserve Bank of IndiaGovernor Raghuram Rajan’s cred-it that this ugly contemptible truthhas finally emerged, although theextent of the malaise is staggering.India’s banking system is emascu-lated and its underbelly lies exposedimperilling the nation’s financialsystem like never before. Arguably,Rajan is the first Governor who hasdealt with this loathsome truth withcandour. However, his verity hasmade him unpopular. The extentof the widespread malfeasancethough boggles one’s mind.

As the fourth quarter results ofthe public sector banks areannounced, one views them withgreat dismay for the net losses reg-istered — Punjab National Bank�5,370 crore, Bank of India �3,587crore, Bank of Baroda �3,230 crore,Syndicate Bank �2,158 crore, IDBIBank �1,736 crore, UCO Bank�1,715 crore, Central Bank �898crore, Dena Bank �667 crore,Allahabad Bank �581 crore,Corporation Bank �510 crore —are scary. All told, 20 PSU bankshave reported losses of �20,561crore in their fourth quarter. Bankof India’s bottom has fallen out,annual losses are �6,089 crore.

Last December, Rajan hadgiven a clarion call when he said,“Given that banks have more pow-ers we can now be a little more care-ful about recognition and the firststep of that was to do away with forbearance starting April 1, but thenext step is to make sure that whatshould be classified as A is classi-fied as A and not B. So this isunderway, and we hope that byMarch 2017 the clean-up will havebeen done.”

But as we go beyond theapparent, we see a far deep rootedrot that is debilitating the system.Infirmities which lead to uneasinessover the systemic debility, leavingin its wake a trail of destruction.Take Syndicate Bank which haswritten off �882 crore in its fourthquarter results.

Reason — the Central Bureauof Investigation registered a case inearly March against New Delhibranch’s then general managerSatish Kumar Goel, Jaipur region-al office deputy general managerSanjeev Kumar, Jaipur branch chiefmanager Deshraj Meena and assis-tant general managers of MalviyaNagar branch in New Delhi andJaipur branch Adarsh Manchandaand Awdhesh Tiwari respectively.Other accused were charteredaccountant Bharat Bamb, a residentof Udaipur, and three Jaipur resi-dents identified as ShankarKhandelwal, Piyush Jain and VineetJain. Now these aren’t bad loans, but

a unique fraud where the perpe-trators connived together resortingto discounting of fake cheques andfake inland bills against fake LICpolicies and arranging over-draftlimit against non-existent LIC poli-cies. The level of trickery andfraudulence can be gauged by thefact that Syndicate Bank had towrite off an astronomical �882crore, which means that it willnever be able to recover the monies.

Syndicate Bank managementrevealed that it wrote off �882.64crore in the fourth quarter (thethree months ended 31 March)because of fraud at its branches inJaipur over the last four years. Fouryears where all firewalls and secu-rity protocols were breached con-sistently without so much as a byyour leave and any alarm whatso-ever across the bank’s network tellsyou that while we shout from therooftops about bad loans, humaningenuity continues to infringethe banking system with great

pizazz. More than 350 accountswere opened with these branchesin Jaipur and Udaipur and loansworth �2-2.5 crore each wereavailed using fake documents. Theamounts were so ‘small’ that thebank’s fraud management systemscould not detect them is how thebank management papered overthe matter. We are talking about a�882 crore write off in a single quar-ter. This is not the first instance oframpant corruption at SyndicateBank. In August 2014, the thenchairman and managing directorSK Jain was arrested in a cash-for-loans scam where he was caughttaking bribes for dispensing loans.

So, while we make a huge songand dance over NPAs and stressedassets, bank managements andtop officials continue to enervatethe banking system’s innards, enfee-bling it. How does the Governmentprotect the interests of depositors,investors and shareholders? Afterall this is plain and simple greed.

Human ingenuity knows nobounds, fail safe mechanisms andsecurity protocols are violated withimpunity. Take the �6,000 croreBank of Baroda/HDFC Bank forexscam last year: The records showthat the alleged ‘exports’ were sentto Afghanistan but invoices weregenerated by Hong Kongimporters. It is not known as towho received them in Afghanistanand what the exports were linkedto. Much before 59 accounts, whichare under the scanner of the EDand the CBI, were opened in BoB,13 accounts were opened in HDFCBank during February-March 2015to send money abroad. Theaccused floated shell companies inIndia and Hong Kong. The Indiancompanies exported overvaluedproducts by generating fake billsand the Hong Kong companiessubmitted fake import bills toclaim duty drawback. So simpleand yet undetected!

While we talk about how bankchairmen in the past were pres-surised by finance ministry officialsinto giving hefty loans to failingindustrialists and businessmen,what has been done to combatthese wilful transgressions made bygreedy senior bank officials, I amconvinced that the Governmenthas no wherewithal and expertiseto combat the phenomenon ofhuman greed. Subversion on thesurface is so simply crafted, itsarchitecture blighting the system.

Ring fencing Indian banks isproving a challenge for theGovernment. As if all this jiggerypokery wasn’t enough, beware thehuman mind of scoundrels andscallywags and their capacity forfraud, duplicity and chicanery isunparalleled. It is the Government’sjob, as custodian of our public sec-tor banks, to create iron clad sys-tems which check deceit, skuldug-gery and embezzlement. It has tostrengthen its filters so that a moatis built around its systems to trackand ensnare dubious transactions.

The excitement following thefive State Assembly polls resultsis slowly dying down after the

newly elected Chief Ministers havetaken oath. While TrinamoolCongress chief Mamata Banerjee andAll India Anna Dravida MunnetraKazhagam president J Jayalalithaahave retained their fiefdom, theother three leaders have becomeChief Ministers for the first time.

While it will be an acid test forAssam Chief Minister SarbanandaSonowal, Kerala Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan has to keep the Leftflag flying. On the other hand,Puducherry Chief Minister VNarayanaswamy has broughtcheers for the Congress whichis almost in ICU.

However, all the ChiefMinisters have to deliver onextravagant promises. Theyhave to find the resourcesbecause voters want immedi-ate results. There will be chal-lenges for leaders like Banerjeeand Jayalalithaa who nursenational ambitions.

For Banerjee, the big winmight have been exciting, butalong with that comes expec-tations. The biggest challengefor Didi is to tackle the debtburden of the State. The totaldebt of the State has gone upto �3.34 lakh crore from two lakhcrore rupees in March 2011 ever sinceBanerjee took charge as the ChiefMinister. Obviously, debt obliga-tions will come in way of deliveringpromises. Where will she find themoney for the freebies she haspromised? Second, Banerjee has toattract investments from national andinternational investors. West Bengalheld the global investors meet lastyear, but follow up needs to be done.

Politically, Banerjee has toensure that the Left and theCongress do not pick up at least untilthe 2019 Lok Sabha poll. Also, shehas to see to it that there is no alter-

native to TMC rule in West Bengal.She has to take action against thoseMinisters and party men whosenames have been dragged intoscams like the Saradha scam.

Jayalalithaa too faces the prob-lem of delivering tall promises shemade during her campaign. In thefirst file that she signed, she orderedwaivering of crop loans upto March31, payable to co-operative banks.This will incur a �5,780 crore bur-den on her Government.Jayalalithaa’s second order was toprovide 100 units of free power forall households in the State. This will

entail an additional payout of �1,607crore as grant to the Tamil NaduGeneration and DistributionCorporation. She also ordered clo-sure of 500 State-run retail liquoroutlets and cut short working hoursof bars.

Politically, she may not have asmooth sailing in Assembly wherethe Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ispoised to function as a belligerentOpposition. The DMK will give hera tough time in the legislature as wellas outside. Moreover, her dispro-portionate assets case is still pend-ing with the Supreme Court.

Vijayan has to maintain a fine

balance between various factions. Hissuccession was smooth even thoughthere were murmurs from the rivalAchuthanandan faction. Vijayan’sfirst task is to ensure law and order,particularly after the recent killing oftwo BJP workers in the State.

The new Government may facecash constraints because of threeexpenditure heads viz, salaries, pen-sions and interest payments, whichamounts to over two-third of theState’s total budgeted revenue of �84,000 crore for this fiscal. Vijayan willalso have to re-look over 800 deci-sions of the previous Government

and the controversial liquorpolicy. The biggest chal-lenge, however, will be toerase his alleged past in theSNC Lavalin scam fromwhen he was the State’sPower Minister in 1997.

In Assam, Sonowal hasto maintain the momentumtill the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.In 2014, the BJP got sevenout of 14 seats and thistime, with the party inpower, it has to move up.Second, he will containfringe elements as he hadmaintained that the BJP wassecular in Assam. The thirdserious challenge is illegalimmigration from

Bangladesh. Maintaining law andorder, keeping the allies happy andfinding money for developmentworks are the other challenges.

Narayanasamy is an oldwarhorse and an experiencedCongressman, but this is the firsttime he has become the ChiefMinster. Winning Puducherry isa silver lining for the Congresswhich is demoralised. Though itis a small Union Territory, it ispolitically important. His instal-lation as the Chief Minister hasbegun with dissent within thelocal unit. He should try and takeevery faction along.

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India will be one of theyoungest nations in theworld with almost 140 mil-

lion individuals in their 20s by2030. Thus, one in every fourgraduates of the world is like-ly be a product of the Indianhigher education system.

Education is an essentialtool for achieving develop-ment and sustainability. Inthis context, the quality ofhigher education becomesincreasingly important asIndia strives to compete andintegrate with the globalisedeconomy where qualified,innovative and creative pro-fessionals are required.

Our higher education sys-tem — be it Government-rununiversities or private univer-sities or self-financed institu-tions — operates in a pincer-like-grip of regulations. Onlythe Indian Institutes ofManagement and the IndianInstitutes of Technology, bothoutside the traditional Indianuniversity system, have theautonomy and flexibility ofvarious decision-making andboth set of institutions havedone India proud.

However, in the last fewdecades, many higher educa-tional institutions in our coun-try have dropped abysmallylow in terms of quality. For,they have become rule ful-fillers and not delivers of qual-ity education. Typically, this isthe outcome in an organisa-tion where the decision-mak-ers are not accountable forpoor performance.

Most of the universitiesneither get sufficient fund fromthe Government, nor can theyraise funds to meet their devel-opment and research needs.Thus, the ability of most of theuniversities and institutes of

higher learning is unfavorablyblunted due to extremely lim-ited flexibility in their decision-making process due to variousgovernance issues. This createsa wide gap in what is the desir-able outcome and what is actu-ally delivered by these univer-sities and institutes of higherlearning in India.

To meet the huge unmetdemand for job-oriented edu-cation and training, theGovernment must ‘free-up’ theGovernment universities andinstitutions and encourage,through appropriate policyinterventions, private sectorto actively contribute to thehigher education.

However, instead ofencouraging the role of pri-vate sector in higher educa-tion, the public policy so farseems to be quite unfriendlyand discouraging to the pri-vate sector with conflictingsignals coming from varioushigher education regulatingbodies of the Government.

If we talk about man-agement education, one mustnote that there exists manyrenowned high-quality pri-vate management institu-tions in our country thatprovide world class educa-tion. These private institu-tions are committed to edu-cational excellence and areconscious of their responsi-bilities. They have qualityinfrastructure, admirablecourse curriculum and fac-ulty, affordable fee structureand location, and above allremarkable placements.

Management educationin India has traversed a longdistance over the years andhas established itself as apowerful force capable ofbringing about manufactur-

ing revolution in India. It pro-vides the foundation to youngmanagers to be a part of thedesired paradigm shift in theIndian growth trajectory.

Due to a vast customerbase, businesses across theglobe are eying Indian marketsand are keen to start their oper-ations here. Also, a large num-ber of business initiatives havebeen launched by theGovernment of India recentlyin its endeavor to not onlymake India a manufacturinghub, but also to make it’s eco-nomic growth more inclusive.These forces have increased thedemand for professional man-agers many folds, making man-agement education moreimportant than ever.

It is, thus, essential for allconcerned policy-makers, edu-cational planners, administra-tors and regulators of our high-er education to revive the verythinking of parity in rules andregulations governing the pub-lic (Government) and the pri-vate sector-operated highereducational institutions.

A common corporate lawin India governing public andprivate business enterprises isa good example to cite. Suchmajor reforms in higher edu-cation in India might just proveto be more productive than anopen invitation to foreign uni-versities to set up campuses inIndia — independently orjointly with local institutions.

It is time to have acoherent policy frameworkthat acknowledges the com-plementarities of public andprivate sector to contributeto the higher education sys-tem and ensures its sus-tainable development.

(The writer is director, ForeSchool of Management)

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The Indian economy willmore than double to $5 tril-

lion in a “matter of few years”as the Government steps up onits reforms agenda to acceler-ate growth, Finance MinisterArun Jaitley said on Thursday.

The reforms will not justhelp India retain the fastestgrowing large economy tagbut also help it move towardsbecoming “a more developedeconomy”, he said.

“With India’s GDP poisedto grow at a much faster pace,for every few years we aregoing to add $1 trillion to oureconomy.

We are currently $2 trillioneconomy. It’s only a matter offew years that we will jumpfrom $2 to 3 to 5 trillion whichonly indicates the kind ofexpansion which the economyis going to take place,” he said.

Speaking at the IndiaInvestment PromotionSeminar organised by CII andDIPP, he said it is easier to grow

when the world is growing ata faster pace.

“But when the global envi-ronment is unsupportive and attimes obstructive, whereshrinkage of trade is takingplace, that is the real testbecause they say when thegoing is good everybody is atbest. When the going is chal-lenging then to defy the odds,and counter the trends is a realchallenge,” he said.

Stating that India hasreceived the distinction ofbeing the fastest growing econ-omy is last two years whenglobal growth was slow, he saidtrends have shown that con-sumer spending and urbandemand have moved up andslowly rural demand also isstruggling up.

“This in turn will have aspiral effect in coming years onIndia’s private sector whichalso has been waiting foropportune moment to becomea little more aggressive,” he said.

Earlier, delivering a lectureat the Osaka University here, he

said for India to realise its fullpotential for the next fewdecades, it needs to pursue itsprogramme for economicgrowth more vigorously.

Notwithstanding anunsupportive global environ-ment, India clocked a GDPgrowth of 7.9 per cent in theJanuary-March quarter and 7.6per cent for the entire 2015-16fiscal on account of the gov-ernment’s pro-growth policies,he said.

Jaitley further said: “Indiawill maintain this paramountposition of fastest growingeconomy in the world. And ifwe did that we can present our-self as a sociOn the outlookahead, Jaitley said he wasn’tsure if the world growth wouldbe supportive, but monsoonrainfall in India this yearpromises to be better and thatitself will push growth.

“Our reform process, I amconfident, is going to continue.It had helped us in restoring thecredibility of the economy andwhile restoring the credibility

both domestic and interna-tional investors feel much moreconfident about investing inIndia. That has helped us,” hesaid.

Jaitley, who arrived here onthe second-leg of his six-dayinvestor-wooing trip to Japan,said he has seen enthusiasmduring his visit and variouspension and sovereign funds aswell as investors are “very seri-ously looking at India as a pos-sible destination”.

“We offer them much bet-ter returns and hopefully acombination of these factorsare increasing domesticdemand,” he said.

High growth and a move-ment towards a more devel-oped economy will help Indiaget rid of social inequalities thatstill exist, Jaitley added.

“And finally, we can proveto the world that democracyand the economic growth in acountry, which historically suf-fered poverty, can co-exist.

You can stabilise yourdemocracy and you can eco-

nomically grow...,” he said.To scale higher growth

rates, the private sector, whichhas been “a little slow”, needs toget into a greater momentum,he said.

The Finance Minister fur-ther said that if the worldeconomy starts growing at 4-5per cent then India can clockover 9 per cent growth.

“But today we have a situ-ation where the world growthitself has been downgraded to3.9 per cent and therefore inthis midst of global slowdown,where the environment is com-pletely unsupportive, to main-tain very high growth rateswith an unsupportive globalenvironment is difficult.

“It is difficult because theeconomies across the worldstart shrinking, trade startsshrinking. No economy can sayI have remained immune fromthat. Japan and Europe have feltthe impact of that,” he said.

India, he said, has openedup its markets and stepped uppublic investment including

in the infrastructure space andis concentrating a lot on boost-ing expenditure to improvethe quality of rural life.

Also, the Government ismaking it easer to do businessin the country.

“We are trying to ratio-nalise the tax structure gradu-ally. We are trying immune thebanking system as well as ratio-nalise subsidies. We have madepermission granting and exitfrom businesses much easier,”he added.

Jaitley said India didn’trank very high on the Ease ofDoing Business index but aseries of steps in last two yearshave pushed it up.

“In next few years Indiawill rapidly move up in theEase of Doing Business rank-ing,” he said.

Stating that Governmenthas reformed direct taxes andis making tax structure sim-pler, he said the Goods andServices Tax (GST) will beconverted into law very short-ly.

“Depth of investmentrequired in India’s infrastruc-ture is huge.

India offers better returnsto investment and hence Indiais better placed than othereconomies.

“Investors when they lookat the possibility of investmentoutside they consider this.Investors are not philan-thropist. India offers oppor-tunities which any compe-tent business man would lookat,” he said.

Stating that theGovernment will not tax ret-rospectively, he said businesslook for stability and pre-dictability.

“As a Government wehave decided we are not goingto change any law half waywhich has takes investors bysurprise. As a policy we willnot rely on that,” he said.

Talking about politicalhistory of India, Jaitley saidIndia made the best choice bygoing for Parliamentar ydemocracy that resulted in

stable Governments barringone or two instances.

Besides unity and sover-eignty, competitive and coop-erative federalism has beenthe strength of the country, hesaid.

India, he said, has builtthree distinct institutions --Election Commission, inde-pendent judicial system and avery professional army --which helped it become asuccessful Parliamentarydemocracy.

Jaitley said democracygets repeatedly tumbled inthose countries where thesethree institutions laggedbehind.

“Even though we had thesecond largest Muslim popu-lation, our populationremained insulated from glob-al trend,” he said.

India, he said, had its ownshare of terror threats espe-cially from the Left wingextremists. “...This should notbe long before the system isable to tackle this,” he said.

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As Raghuram Rajan con-tinues facing heat from

some sections of BJP, leadingindustry body CII onThursday backed a secondterm for RBI Governor, sayinghe has done a great job for thecountry and personal attackson him are “demeaning”.

Naushad Forbes, presi-dent of the Confederation ofIndian Industry (CII), echoedFinance Minister Arun Jaitley’sstand that personal attacksare unwarranted.

“I would only repeat whatFinance Minister has said thatI don’t think personal attacksare warranted. I don’t thinkthey serve us well at all as acountry. They in a sense actu-ally are demeaning. So I agreewith him 100 per cent,” he toldthe news agency here.

Forbes, who is part of ahigh-level industry delegationaccompanying Jaitley on thesix-day visit to Japan to drumup investments, said he did nottake continuous attack by BJP

MP Subramanian Swamy onRajan seriously and treats hiscomments as noise that arepart of a vibrant democracy.

“I think the Governor hasbeen doing a great job for thecountry and we would cer-tainly see it as a very positivemove if he were reappointed,”he said.

Rajan, who was appoint-ed by the previous UPAGovernment for a three-yearterm that began on September4, 2013, has been under attackfrom some quarters in BJP,including its Rajya Sabha MPSubramanian Swamy, for whatthey term as his failure tolower interest rates and boost

economic growth.“I am sure the

Government will take up theissue (of Rajan’s reappoint-ment) at the appropriatetime,” Forbes said.

Asked about Swamy’scomments on Rajan, he said,“I don’t take them seriously. Itreat those comments as noiseas part of our noisy democ-racy. It is a sign of vibrancy.”

Jaitley too in an interviewto the news agency earlier thisweek had denounced theattack on Rajan saying thedebate should be about theissues and policies, and notabout personalities.

“I do not approve of anyof these comments beingmade by anyone as far as thepersonality is concerned,because the RBI and itsGovernor is an importantinstitution in the Indian econ-omy,” he said.

The Finance Minister fur-ther said, “People should beopen to discussing all issuesand policies, they have a rightto support those policies,

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Day after the drive test results oncall drops were out in the pub-

lic domain by telecom regulatorTelecom Regulatory Authority ofIndia (TRAI), showing worseningcall drop situation, mobile opera-tors on Thursday hit back the reg-ulator, saying that the issue is lim-ited to area where the problems ofinstalling towers are still existing.

“While the area of Delhi NCRis 46,208 kilometer square, theseresults are limited to a route cov-ering 600 km only. Hence the qual-ity of services (QoS) results fromthe Drive Test are not strictly com-parable with the standard QoS forDropped Calls regularly publishedby TRAI for the entire service area,”GSM body Cellular OperatorsAssociation of India (COAI) saidin a statement.

“The COAI represents tele-com majors, including BhartiAirtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular,

Aircel etc. The drive test and itsresults do not cover all the cell sitesbut only a limited amount of thetelecom circle,” it added.

The regulator published itsreport on drive tests of mobile ser-vice quality on Wednesday andfound that all 3G networks; 2G net-works of Airtel and MTNL andCDMA network of RCom haveshown degradation in perfor-mance compared to previous drivetest.

In the latest tests conducted inDelhi, State-run telecom operatorMTNL failed on all network-based quality of service parameters.However, COAI has contested

the same and said, “When we lookat the QoS for the whole LSA ofDelhi we notice that all the oper-ators are in compliance with thebenchmark set by TRAI of 2 percent. Given the limited coverage ofthese Drive Tests, the results showproblems limited to the knownproblematic areas where the indus-try faces issues in obtaining cellsites.”

The industry body also calledreport on using radio link time outtechnology being used for mask-ing dropped call as misleading butdid not contest finding of the TRAIreport that telecom operator Aircelis using it beyond the levels beingused by its peers. “It is also inter-esting to note that the big headlinesregarding masking of call dropsusing the Radio Link Timeout(RLT) parameter proved mislead-ing as TRAI’s own publishedresults in the Drive Tests show onlyone operator out of parameter,”COAI said.

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The country’s largest luxu-ry car maker Mercedes-

Benz on Thursday launchedits new SUV GLC priced upto �50.9 lakh (ex-showroomPune).

The new model is avail-able in both diesel and petroloptions. The GLC 220d, pow-ered by a 2143 cc dieselengine, is priced at �50.7lakh, while the GLC 300 dri-ven by a 1991 cc petrol engineis tagged at �50.9 lakh (allprices ex-showroom Pune).

“The GLC is a key prod-uct that fills the gap between

the GLA and the GLE luxurySUVs,” Mercedes-Benz IndiaMD and CEO Roland Folgertold reporters here.

The model is beingimported to India as a com-pletely built unit.

Bullish on the SUV seg-ment, he said: “We have seena growing penchant for luxu-ry SUVs amongst luxury carcustomers in India and theaddition of the GLC is goingto redefine the segment com-pletely.”

The model is the fifthlaunch for the companywhich is slated to bring in 12new products this year.

The GLC becomes thesixth SUV in the company’sportfolio in India, whichranges from the GLA to theAMG G63 which are priced inthe range of �31 lakh and �2crore, respectively.

Commenting on the mar-ket situation, Folger saidwhile the company has man-aged to grow sales despiteuncertainties over diesel vehi-cles, it could have been muchbetter.

In 2015, the companyposted record sales of 13,502units in India as against10,201 units in 2014, up by 32per cent.

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British liquor giant DiageoPlc on Thursday filed an

interlocutory application beforethe Debt Recovery Tribunalseeking vacating of DRT’sMarch seven order barringliquor baron Vijay Mallya fromwithdrawing $75 million exitbuyout by it under a sweetheartdeal till the disposal of SBI’s caseagainst him over loan default.

Other two defendants,United Breweries (Holdings)Limited and Kingfisher AirlinesLimited also filed interlocuto-ry applications.

UBHL has filed the appli-cation for producing evidenceand Kingfisher for submittingobjections to all the facts per-taining to the case.

After filing of interlocuto-ry applications by Diagio,UBHL and Kingfisher, DRT

Presiding Officer Benakanahalliposted the matter for nexthearing tomorrow.

The Presiding officer alsosaid since the Supreme Courthad ordered DRT to completethe hearing in two months, thehearing of the case will betaken up on a daily basis.

“The Supreme Court, in itsorder, had directed the Tribunalto complete the hearing in twomonths time and hence theTribunal will conduct the hear-ing on daily basis,”Benakanahalli said.

DRT had barred Mallyafrom withdrawing $75 millionexit payment from Diageo tillthe disposal of the case over theloan default by KingfisherAirlines. It had alsorestrained Diageo and UnitedSpirits Limited, owned by theUK-based firm, from tem-porarily disbursing the amount

to Mallya who worked out thedeal under a severance package.

However, a sum of $40million of the $75 million sev-erance package deal had alreadybeen disbursed, followingwhich the bankers’ consortiumhad prayed for directions fromthe Tribunal to attach theamount before it. Following adirective of the Tribunal,Diageo submittedthe details ofseverance package deal, inwhich the bankers figured outthat $40 million of the $75 mil-lion was parked in the accountheld by Mallya in the New

York-based JP Morgan Bank.Thereafter, on May 17, the

Tribunal directed J P MorganBank not to disburse toMallya $40 million sweet-heart deal struck betweenhim and Diageo PLC.

The Tribunal also haddirected the bank to “attach”(submit) before it the state-ments of accounts held byMallya in the bank.

Benakanahalli also haddirected companies includingWatson Limited, a Mallya-affiliated firm, to attach sharesbefore the Tribunal.

D i a ge o, t he wor l d’slargest spirits maker whichacquired control of UnitedSpirits (USL) in 2012, hadi s s u e d a g u ar ante e t oStandard Chartered Bankfor a $135 million (around�900 crore) loan to Watsonto re le as e cer t a in UBL

shares t hat were to b eacquired as part of the deal.

The company, in theirstatement, had said that ther isk had ar i s en due todefault by Watson in Mayand DRT preventing sale orany other transfer of suchUBL shares in June as partof the enforcement processpending further orders fol-l ow i ng t he p e t i t i on bybankers.

Benakanahalli had alsopulled up the banks for nottaking due deligence of tak-ing appropriate action toknow the details of transac-tion between Diageo andMallya. Mallya, whosenow-defunct group compa-ny Kingfisher Airlines owesover �9,000 crore (�90 bil-lion) to 17 banks, had leftthe country on March 2 andis in the UK.

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Wadia group-promotedbudget carrier GoAir on

Thursday announced the deliv-ery of its first A320 NEO air-craft and with this the airlinebecame eligible for interna-tional operations.

GoAir has also became thesecond operator to have thislatest fuel-efficient aircraft fromthe European aviation major,Airbus.

“GoAir is delighted to wel-come A320neo (new engineoption) into its fleet. With theinduction of the first of our 72NEO aircraft on order, we have

reached a fleet strength of 20aircraft,” GoAir ChiefExecutive Officer WolfgangProck-Schauer said in a state-ment.

The airline in a gesturetowards conserving water inthe face of the drought in cer-tain parts of the country, decid-ed not to accept the customarywater canon salute to the newaircraft on its arrival.

Globally, when an airlinestarts its operations to a par-ticular airport or flies a new air-craft, a water canon welcome isgiven from two fire tenderswhen the plane lands at thedestination airport.

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India needs to capture someof the world markets if it has

to sustain an 8-10 per centgrowth rate over the next 20-25 years, a top planner has saidbut acknowledged that thecountry has been “slower” thanothers in entering into freetrade agreements.

NITI Aayog ViceChairman Arvind Panagariyasaid that “on the Free Tradeareas, India has been certainlyslower than other countries.”

He made the remarks hereyesterday at a discussion organ-ised by the Asia Society PolicyInstitute on the two years of theIndian Government respond-ing to whether trade-ledgrowth is a priority for theGovernment.

Panagariya said the broad-er question is whether “outwardorientation” is part of theGovernment’s strategy of devel-opment, adding that his pushis in that direction.

“I just don’t see that if

India is to try to sustain agrowth rate of 8-10 per centover a period of 20-25 years, itcan’t be done without actuallycapturing some of the worldmarkets,” he said.

He added that apart fromliberalisation, India would alsoneed to focus on “internalreforms” like trade facilitation,speed at which goods can movein and out of the country andthe various clearances required.

He noted that India’s inter-nal goods market is less than $1trillion while in the world mar-ket, merchandise exports standat $18 trillion.

He said that in China,wages have been rising over 10per cent a year for more thana decade and currently, they are2-3 times the wages in India onan average.

“Wages are likely to risemuch faster than they willrise in India. Lot of labourintensive firms are movingout of China and India oughtto be the natural destinationfor them,” he added.

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Two Indian-origin womenhave featured on the

Forbes’ annual list of America’s60 wealthiest and most suc-cessful self-made womenentrepreneurs who have‘crashed ceilings throughinvention and innovation’.

India-born Neerja Sethi,who co-founded IT consultingand outsourcing firm Syntelwith her husband Bharat Desai,is ranked 16th on ‘America’sRichest Self-made Women’ listwhile president and CEO ofArista Networks Jayshree Ullal(55) is ranked 30th.

According to Forbes, therichest self-made woman inAmerica is Diane Hendricks,the owner of ABC Supply, thelargest wholesale distributor ofroofing and siding in the coun-try. Hendricks is now worth$4.9 billion, $1.2 billion morethan last year when she wasranked second.

The second annual tally ofAmerica’s wealthiest, most suc-cessful self-made women

includes 60 trailblazers -10more than last year.

The 60 women, who areworth a combined $ 53 billion,have created some of the nation'sbest known brands such as Gapand Spanx, while a number ofthem have also helped buildsome of the most successfulcompanies in tech, includingFacebook, eBay and Google.

Sethi (61) has a net worth of$1.1 billion. Her companyemploys more than 25,000 peo-

ple and boasts a recent marketcapof $3.6 billion. She is cur-rently the vice president of cor-porate affairs, a role she has hadsince the company's inception.She also sits on the board ofdirectors alongside her husband,who remains the chairman.

Born in London, raised inNew Delhi, Ullal has a networth of $470 million. Shebecame president and CEO ofArista Networks in 2008, whenit had no revenues and fewer

than 50 employees. The com-pany reported $838 million inrevenue in 2015, after goingpublic in June 2014. “She tookslightly more than an engineer-ing team doing some good tech-nology and turned it into thethriving network switch com-pany it is today,” says Arista co-founder David Cheriton.

Other notable names onthe list include TV czar OprahWinfrey, who moved up threespots to number two and has anew worth of $3.1 billion.Facebook's chief operating offi-cer Sheryl Sandberg's fortune isnow $1.4 billion, up a third froma year ago making her one of theyear's biggest gainers. Sandberg,who bagged the role eight yearsago, has helped oversee thecompany's market capitalisationgrow by a staggering $328 billion.

The youngest person in theranks is 26-year-old singerand pop icon Taylor Swift, whomade her debut at number 60with a net worth of $50 mil-lion, thanks to her 1989 WorldTour, which grossed a quarterof a billion dollars last year.

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NEW DELHI: FMCG majorHindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) onThursday said it will split its Foodsand Refreshments (F&R) businessinto two separate units in line withits global category structure. Thecompany also announced appoint-ment of Sudhir Sitapati as ExecutiveDirector, Refreshments.

“The Foods and Refreshments(F&R) business will now be organ-ised into two separate businessesof Foods and Refreshments. SudhirSitapati currently RegionalCategory Vice President,Refreshments (South Asia &Africa), Unilever, will be inductedinto the management committeeof HUL as Executive Director,Refreshments,” HUL said in a

NSE filing. It further said: “GeetuVerma, currently ExecutiveDirector (Foods & Refreshments)will continue to look after theFoods business. She will be desig-nated as Executive Director(Foods) and will continue as amember of the management com-mittee of HUL.”

The firm said this change is inalignment with the category struc-ture of Unilever globally. “Both thebusinesses have registered stronggrowth under Geetu's able leader-ship and have now reached signif-icant scale. The reorganisation into2 separate businesses will enablesharper focus and help to fully lever-age the growth opportunities in linewith HUL’s ambitions,” it added.

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NEW YORK: India-born GoogleCEO Sunder Pichai has said thedigital giant has no plans to makeits own smartphones right nowand will continue to collaboratewith its original equipment man-ufacturers (OEMs), according tomedia reports.

“Our plan is still to work withOEMs to make phones.. Nexus, weare investing more effort intothem, you'll see us put morethought into Nexus devices, thereare categories beyond phones,we'll be opinionated where weneed to be to push the category for-ward,” Sunder Pichai said in aninterview to Vox Media’s CodeConference on Wednesday. The

company will "thoughtfully addmore features" to Android onNexus phones going forward, theTech Crunch reported.

“Android is a very open ecosys-tem, the answer may not be a glob-al one player answering it every partof the world, you have great exam-ples of regional players in places likeIndia, China, which serve the

needs of those markets very well,”he said. For now, however, it seemslike the company is content withworking with partners like itsNexus program, the report said.“Globally it's a very competitivemarketplace.

The smartphone industry,the hardware industry, it's a veryefficient industry. Even Amazon,they base it on Android too. I lookat it and say Android is a largescale, open platform,” he said.Pichai also unveiled 'Google Home',a voice-activated product that brings'Google Assistant' to any room inyour house, a new messaging appcalled 'Allo' and video calling feature'Duo' at the 'Google I/O'. PTI

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BEJING: Greater industrial cooperation canhelp reduce distrust between Indians and Chinese,directly benefit their growth and usher in a newclimax of globalisation, a state-run Chinese dailysaid on Thursday. “Industrial cooperation can helpreduce distrust between Indians and Chinese. Thefuture direction of the Sino-Indian relationship

depends on whether the nations' economic activ-ities can alleviate their long-standing concerns,”an article in the state-run Global Times said. Itsaid the industrial cooperation can directly ben-efit the growth of both countries, weaken nation-alist sentiments embedded in both societies, andoffer new perspectives on each other's rise. PTI

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The country’s largest car makerMaruti Suzuki India has

advanced its bi-annual mainte-nance closures of plants by threeweeks in the wake of componentsupply disruption due to fire atManesar plant of its vendor,Subros Ltd.

MSI has, with the coopera-tion of all employees, advancedthe regular bi-annual mainte-nance closure of its plants to June6 to June 11 which was earlierscheduled from June 27 to July 2,the company said in a statement.

“This will enable the closureperiod to be utilised for arrang-ing supply of components, bothfrom Subros Ltd as well as fromother sources, and result in high-er production volumes after theclosure,” it added.

The company, which onMonday announced temporarysuspension of production andsubsequent partial resumptionfrom Wednesday, said produc-tion of cars, to the extent ofcomponent availability, is con-tinuing at the Gurgaon plant.

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HEAVY VEHICLES FACTORYMINISTRY OF DEFENCE

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

AVADI, CHENNAI-600054

FAX NO: 044-2684-1824, PHONE NO: 044-26843000

INVITATION FOR OPEN TENDER ENQUIRY THROUGH e-PROCUREMENT

No.HVF/MC048/DAVP/MAY-04/2016-17

The Sr. General Manager, Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi, on behalf of President of India invites tenders through e-Procurement

from eligible India firms for the following items as per Drawing & Specifications:

Sl Nomenclature of Item/Speen. or Drawing No. Qty Sl No. Nomenclature of Item/Speen. or Drawing No. Qty

No. Tender Enquiry No. Tender Enquiry No.

1. STEEL LINNER 2.8 MM DIA(TE.NO:0511759) 565 Nos 25 SPARK LIGHTER WITH STONE (FOR WELDING) 522 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

2. CONTACT TIP 1.6 MM/1591(TE.NO:0511759) 747 Nos 26 CUTTING NOZZLE FOR SOITAAB G/C MACHINE 30 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

3. GAS DIFFUSER/4635(TE.NO: 0511759) 1164 Nos 27 CUTTING BOLW PIPE WITH NOZZLE 137 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

4. CAP/4423(TE.NO: 0511759) 527 Nos 28 CUTOGEN TYPE NOZZLE SIZE: 1/16" 303 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

5. NECK/QT5-60(TE.NO: 0511759) 402 Nos 29 COTOGEN TYPE NOZZLE SIZE 3/64" 308 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

6. NOZZLE ASSY./459IHD(TE.NO: 0511759) 524 Nos 30 CUTOGEN TYPE NOZZLE SIZE:1/32" 297 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

7. NOZZLE TAPER/4492(TE.NO: 0511759) 273 Nos 31 GI HOSE CLIP WORM DRIVE SIZE: 2" 100 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

8. STEEL LINNER 1.6 MM DIA(TE.NO: 0511759) 273 Nos 32 GI HOSE CLIP WORM DRIVE SIZE 3" 100 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

9. STEEL LINNER 2.4 MM DIA(TE.NO: 0511759) 470 Nos 33 OXY-ACETEYLENE GAS CUTTER: MAKE ESAB 20 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759)

10. SPARES FOR CO2 BERNARD TORCH 55 Nos 34 CUTTING NOZZLE 10-25MM 30 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759) (TE.NO: 0511759)

11. FLASH BACK ARRESTER TORCH END 103 Set 35 CUTTING NOZZLE 25-40MM 30 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759) (TE.NO: 0511759)

12. FLASH BACK ARRESTER REGULATER END 103 Set 36 CUTTING NOZZLE 40-60MM 30 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759) (TE.NO: 0511759)

13. CONTACT TIP 2.8 MM/1594 1222 Nos 37 CUTTING NOZZLE 100-150MM 30 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759) (TE.NO: 0511759)

14. TRIGGER SWITCH ASSY FOR 45 Nos 38 DINSE TORCH ASSY UNIT-300 amp, PARTNO. 45 Nos

BERNARD TORCH (TE.NO: 0511759) DIXMS-2-303 BDG B40-3 (E) EURO MODEL

(TE.NO: 0511759)

15. CONTACT TIP 2.4MM/1593(TE.NO: 0511759) 1292 Nos 39 CO2 WELDNG TORCH MODEL P.S.F 500 SELF 31 Nos

COOLED WELDING TORCH CODE

NO. 366-400884(3M)(TE.NO: 0511759)

16. CO2 GAS REGULATOR SPARES FOR CO2 86 Nos 40 CUTTER GEAR SHAPING HOB PRE Varying

(TE.NO: 0511759) GRINDING- 3 item(TE.NO: 0511759) Qty

17. WIRE FEED GEAR 2.4 MM (SET OF 4 No.) 75 Nos 41 MILLING CUTTER, INSERT CARBIDE-6 items Varying

(TE.NO: 0511759) (TE.NO: 0511759) Qty

18. DRIVE UNIT ASSY (WITHOUT EURO CONNECTOR) 43 Nos 42 TAP (Right hand positive spiral flute)-6items 50 Nos

(TE.NO: 0511759) (TE.NO: 0511759) each

19. EURO CONNECTOR(TE.NO: 0511759) 55 Nos 43 BROACH TOOL-04items (TE.NO: 0511759) 2 Nos each

20. REEL HOLDER ASSEMBLY(TE.NO: 0511759) 50 Nos 44 END MILL CUTTER -07 items (TE.NO: 0511759) Varying Qty

21. WIRE FEEDER GEAR 1.6MM (SET OF 4 NOS) 15 Set 45 INSERT CARBIDE -04 items (TE.NO: 0511759) Varying

(TE.NO: 0511759) Qty

22. ELECTRODE HOLDER 600 AMP HEAVY DUTY 1210 Nos 46 INSERT CARBIDE, INSERT FOR DRILLING Varying

(TE.NO: 0511759) -10 items (TE.NO: 0511759) Qty

23. OXYGEN REGULATOR TWO STAGE 107 Nos 47 ROLLEER (TE.NO: 0511759) 30 sets

(TE.NO: 0511759)

24. ACCETYLINE REGULATOR IDA-50B 99 Nos

TWO STAGE (TE.NO: 0511759) BLANK

Procuring Section GS TOOLS

Contact Ph No. 044-26843470 044-26843221 044- 26843221

Against Items at Sl. Nos 1 to 39 40 to 44 45 to 47

Tender Closing Date & Time 14.06.2016 10:00 Hrs. 30.06.2016 14:30 Hrs. 27.06.2016 14:30 Hrs.

Tender Opening Date & Time 14.06.2016 10:30 Hrs. 30.06.2016 15:00 Hrs. 27.06.2016 15:00 Hrs.

All relevant details like Eligibility criteria, Terms & Conditions Core Competency for manufacturing of above items Tender Fee EMD,

Details on Drawing/Technical documents, Contact details are available in the websites https://ofbeproc.gov.in and www.ten-

ders.gov.in Any further details/amendments etc will be published in the above websites.

I If any CORRIGENDUM that will be published in https://ofbeproc.gov.in

Sd/-

ASST. WORKS MANAGER

davp 10201/11/0346/1617 FOR Sr. GENERAL. MANAGER

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ISIS made a whopping $2.4billion in 2015 despite losing

territory by simply adjusting itsbusiness from oil to taxes andis still the richest terror groupon the planet, according to areport. The new report, by theCenter for the Analysis ofTerrorism on the finances ofthe ISIS, said that despite theconstant airstrikes on its oilinfrastructure, ISIS still has anover $2 billion empire and it ismaking up lost revenue bysqueezing about 8 million peo-ple under its control throughraising of taxes.

The authors of the report,terrorism experts Jean-CharlesBrisard and Damien Martinez,conclude that “ISIS’s militarydefeat is not imminent...Asthings stand, ISIS economiccollapse remains some way offin the mid-term.” The reportsays ISIS made $2.4 billion in2015. That is a $500 milliondrop from the center’s revenueestimate the previous year, butISIS remains the richest terror-ist organisation on the planet.

The ISIS’ extortion of thepeople living inside its territo-ry in Iraq and Syria has sky-rocketed from $360 million in2014 to $800 million in 2015,

according to researchers.The theoretical value of

assets under ISIS control (oilreserves, gas reserves, minerals,cash assets) was estimated at$2,260 billion by the end of2015, up by 11 per cent com-pared to late 2014, the reportreleased on Wednesday said.

“It’s really an adaptiveorganisation. What strikes meis the fact that they’re clearlybehaving as managers, notsimple looters. They really havebudget requirements, andthey’re compensating,” Brisardtold CNN Money.

The report is a soberingtake on what has been an

image of ISIS as a terroristorganisation in disarray. Inrecent months, ISIS has cutfighter salaries in half and anonstop bombing campaignhas cut its oil production.

It has also lost 40 per centof its territory, according to theUS military, but ISIS still hasabout 8 million people under itscontrol. Brisard and Martinezwere quoted as saying that ISIShas simply adjusted its businessfrom oil to taxes. As oil fell from38 per cent to 25 per cent of itsrevenue stream last year, ISIScranked up its extortion racket.

In 2015, taxes went fromsupplying 12 per cent of year-

ly ISIS revenue to 33 per cent.Those taxes include a 10

per cent income tax, up to 15per cent business tax, roadtolls, 5 per cent fees for bankcash withdrawals and up to 35

per cent taxes on pharmaceu-tical drugs. There are also feesfor leaving the territory, eventemporarily. And there’s a spe-cial tax on non Muslims calledjizyah.

Berlin: German lawmakerspassed a resolution onThursday recognising theWorld War I massacre ofArmenians by Ottoman forcesas genocide, drawing a furiousrebuke from Turkey whichcalled it a “historic mistake”.

Only one MP voted againstand another abstained, as par-liament approved overwhelm-ingly by a show of hands theresolution titled “Remembranceand commemoration of thegenocide of Armenians andother Christian minorities in1915 and 1916”.

In the public gallery of theBundestag, people held upbanners saying “thank you” asthe parliamentary speakerannounced the result of thevote to applause.

Armenia Foreign MinisterEdward Nalbandian praisedthe decision as “Germany’svaluable contribution not onlyto the international recognitionand condemnation of theArmenian Genocide, but alsoto the universal fight for theprevention of genocides, crimesagainst humanity.”

But Turkey swiftly con-demned the resolution. “TheGerman parliament’s recogni-tion of ‘distorted and groundless’allegations as ‘genocide’ is a his-toric mistake,” Deputy PrimeMinister and Governmentspokesman Numan Kurtulmussaid on Twitter, calling the res-olution “null and void.”

Ahead of the vote, Ankarahad warned that the vote wasa “test of friendship”. AFP

Berlin: Turkey on Thursdayrecalled its envoy to Germanyand threatened consequences,in a furious reaction over theBundestag’s decision to adopta resolution recognising theWorld War I massacre ofArmenians by Ottoman forcesas genocide.

Only one MP voted againstand another abstained, as theGerman parliament approvedoverwhelmingly by a show ofhands the resolution titled“Remembrance and com-memoration of the genocide ofArmenians and other Christianminorities in 1915 and 1916”.

New York: A 47-year-old Sikhgas station owner was shotdead in the US city of Newarkand the victim’s family is sus-pecting a hate crime.

Davinder Singh was shot atthe gas station yesterday, areport in NBC New York said.

Singh, of Iselin, was foundunresponsive at the gas stationand taken to a local hospitalwhere he was pronounced dead,police said.

Singh’s son, Jatinder Singh,said that he thought his father,who had moved to the USfrom India 25 years ago mayhave been targeted because hewas Sikh and wore a turban.

There was no struggle, noconfrontation, Jatinder said. “Idon’t know what else it could beother than a hate crime,” he said.Jatinder said his father was “thebest man I ever knew” and thatthe family had worried abouthim working in Newark. PTI

Beijing: China on Thursdaysaid it will not allow any foreignorganisation or individual tointerfere in its religious affairsas it defended the crackdownagainst Islamic militants inXinjiang province, borderingcountries like Pakistan, as a“just act” to safeguard its fun-damental interests.

Religious extremists, in thename of religion, spread radi-cal and extremist views andtake extremist means to try toestablish a theocracy, a ChineseGovernment white paper titled‘Freedom of Religious Belief inXinjiang’ released said.

Xinjiang enjoys unprece-dented religious freedom, thepaper said asserting that the free-dom of religious belief in theprovince” cannot be matched bythat in any other historical peri-od.” Since the founding of thePeople’s Republic of China(PRC) in 1949, citizens’ freedomof religious belief fully respect-ed and believers’ normal reli-gious needs effectively met, itsaid. PTI

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Growing tensions in the dis-puted South China Sea

will drive up defence spendingin the Asia-Pacific region byalmost 23 per cent by the endof the decade, consultancy IHSJane’s said in a report onThursday.

Combined regionaldefence budgets will grow from$435 billion last year to $533billion in 2020, furthering ashift in global military spend-ing away from Western Europeand North America towardemerging markets, especially inAsia, the report said.

“A number of the SouthChina Sea’s littoral states appearto be responding to China’smore assertive stance in theregion and there is no sign ofthis trend coming to an end,”Janes’ principal analyst, Craig

Caffrey, said in the report.Tensions have been rising

steadily over the South ChinaSea, driven largely by China’smilitary buildup and morerobust assertions of its claim tovirtually the entire crucial waterbody, along with its islands andreefs. Following years of dou-ble-digit annual percentageincreases, China has far-and-away the region’s biggestdefence budget at $146 billionlast year, according to theGovernment.

That growth is now slow-ing and Jane’s said it expectsChina’s budget to rise by about 5 per cent to $233 billionby 2020.

Over recent years, Beijinghas created new islands andbuilt airfields and other mili-tary infrastructure on them,although Beijing says they areintended largely for civilian use.

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The war of words betweenHillary Clinton and Donald

Trump on Thursday intensifiedas the Democratic presidentialfrontrunner accused theRepublican presumptive presi-dential nominee of “scamming”the American people after hegot embroiled in a fresh ‘TrumpUniversity’ controversy.

“He (Trump) is trying toscam America the way hescammed all those people atTrump University. It’s importantthat we recognise what he hasdone, because that’s usually apretty good indicator of what hewill do,” Clinton said at an

election rally in New Jersey.“Today, we’re learning

about another scam: the so-called Trump University. TheNew York Attorney General issuing Donald Trump for fraud,”she alleged. “And his ownemployees testified — I want

you to hear this — his ownemployees testified that TrumpU — you can’t make this up —that Trump U was a fraudulentscheme where Donald Trumpenriched himself at the expenseof hardworking people,” shesaid.

“Trump and his employeestook advantage of vulnerableAmericans, encouraging themto max out their credit cards,empty their retirement sav-ings, destroy their financialfutures, all while makingpromises they knew were falsefrom the beginning. This is justmore evidence that DonaldTrump himself is a fraud,”Clinton said.

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Iran officially announced onThursday that it won’t be

sending pilgrims to the hajj thisyear, blaming Saudi Arabia forthe move and claiming the king-dom has failed to provide ade-quate security for the pilgrims.

The hajj has become acontentious issue as tensionsbetween the two West Asianpowers escalated after last year’sdisaster at the hajj killed at least2,426 people, according to anAP count. Iran has said the dis-aster killed 464 of its pilgrims.

Iran has since demandedadditional security guaranteesfor pilgrims but a second roundof talks in Saudi Arabia this

week failed to resolve the issue.Saeed Ohadi, head of Iran’s

Hajj and PilgrimageOrganisation, said “SaudiArabia knows it will pay aheavy price for depriving pil-grims” from Iran of the chanceto perform the hajj, considereda duty for every able-bodiedMuslim.

He also said Riyadh soughtto restrict the number ofmakeshift clinics Iran wantedto set up for its pilgrims and theamount of medicines it want-ed to supply them with. Inaddition, last month the king-dom said it would not allow

Iranian pilgrims to per-form a Shia ritual during thehajj.

Riyadh: A Saudi Arabianscholar has issued a fatwaagainst using another person’sWi-Fi without permission, inline with the Islamic ruling thattheft was forbidden.

The fatwa was made by AliAl Hakami, a member of theCouncil of Senior Scholarswhich advises the Saudi Kingon religious matters.

“Taking advantage of theWi-Fi service illegally or with-out the knowledge of otherbeneficiaries or providers is notallowed,” said Ali Al Hakami,a member of the high scholars’commission, Gulf Newsreports. IANS

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House after house flicks byhundreds of feet beneath

a military helicopter, manydistinguished by one arrestingfeature: their roofs have beenremoved by the army to allowan “aerial view” of militantswho may take refuge there.

South Waziristan was oncea stronghold of the PakistaniTaliban, where the extremistsoperated with impunity, but themilitary says the region in thecountry’s mountainous north-west has been cleared of its lastmilitant stronghold.

Now the district, part ofPakistan’s FederallyAdministered Tribal Areas(FATA) on the border with

Afghanistan, is welcomingthousands of displaced familiesback to their homes, many ofwhich no longer offer shelter.

Some were damaged byweather, said a military officialwho flew with media on thearmy-controlled helicopter tripearlier this month over thetowns of Makeen, Ladha andKanigurm.

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*%*%��B06C��04/D(�� )�.�� *.�E�'##�+%*?��9��"��$�� #��>��Baghdad: Iraq’s Fallujah offensive against ISIS has temporaryground to a halt as 50,000 people, including 20,000 children,were feared to be trapped inside the city and running out ofsupplies.

The delay was announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Haideral-Abadi on Wednesday as the military fears for the safetyof the trapped civilians, who have a limited supply of food,water, and healthcare.

In footage broadcast on state television, Abadi told mil-itary commanders in the operations room near the frontline:“It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if pro-tecting civilians wasn’t among our priorities... Thank God,our units are at the outskirts of Fallujah and victory is with-in reach.” IANS

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London: It is time to acknowl-edge the “uncomfortable”truth that the ISIS is linkedwith Islam as the terror groupis “not preaching Judaism”, theBBC’s head of religion andethics has said. Professor AaqilAhmed, the first Muslim tohold the role at the Britishnews corporation, said in aspeech at HuddersfieldUniversity it was wrong to sug-gest that the terrorist group“has nothing to do with Islam”.

“I hear so many peoplesay ISIS has nothing to do withIslam — of course it has.They are not preachingJudaism. It might be wrongbut what they are saying is anideology based on some formof Islamic doctrine,” Ahmedsaid last week. The academicwas fielding questions aboutthe BBC’s approach to Muslimissues at the event curated byLapido, the centre for religiousliteracy in journalism.

BBC had come under firefrom British PM for using theterm “ISIS” rather than ‘Daesh’in reference to the terroristgroup. PTI

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In the highly anticipated superhero film,Fantastic Four, from 20th Century Fox,

Michael B Jordan plays Johnny Storm. Alongwith Miles Teller, Kate and Jamie Bell, Johnnyundergoes physical changes after mankind’sfirst journey to an alternative universe.Johnny’s transformation leaves him able tocover himself in fire that never burns him,combust the air around him, shoot fireballs,and propel himself through the air on jets offlame. After these changes,he becomes knownas the human torch.

�Tell us about what you think we can expectfrom this version of the Fantastic Four.

It's the Fantastic Four! It’s fun. These arecharacters you may be familiar with, but you’reseeing them in a new, fresh way. It's a differ-ent take. I think the film is grounded in realemotions — you get to know these charactersand hopefully care about them. They’re learn-ing about themselves at the same time. It’s asuperhero movie but a grounded superheromovie. It’s an action packed drama.

�What are your thoughts on your char-acter, Johnny Storm?

Well, Johnny’s Johnny, you know! Likeall of them, he’s figuring out who he is. He’scharismatic. He’s fun. But he’s got to dealwith stuff. That’s what this is about. It'sabout when life throws curve balls at you,how you adapt. How do you deal withobstacles that you may encounter in yourlife?

�HOW DID YOU APPROACH THE ROLE?Pretty much how I would

approach any other role. You’re play-ing a person, a kid who is dealing withthings. Obviously, I was excited to doit. I didn't really need to research therole as I was a huge Fantastic Four andcomic book fan already.

�Is it different though, being castas a superhero?

Specifically for this project, I’mnot cast as a superhero. I’m Johnny

Storm,who's just a regular guy whobecomes something. We're becoming the

Fantastic Four that everyone else knows. It’sthe journey to get there.

�Josh Trank stressed that he wanted the rightactors for the roles — what did you and Joshdiscuss before you signed up for the role?What did Josh want? What appealed to you?

It wasn't really that straightforward. We’vebeen friends a long time and we’d talked aboutit. When he said “Would you play Johnny?”Of course, I said, “Yeah! I’ll play Johnny!” Thatwas kind of how it got started. We talked aboutit and developed ideas over a long period oftime.

�Can you tell me a bit about Johnny’sdynamic with the other main characters?

The Fantastic Four that people rememberwere already established as a group, but here,

that group is not established yet. We have tofind that. That journey has tohappen to get us to the place thatpeople know. This is an originstory. These characters meeteach other, mostly for the firsttime. So we become those char-acters over the course of the film.Ben and Reed are best friends,but Johnny doesn't necessarilyagree with what Ben’s doingand then Victor’s there and itkind of becomes this sort of

jousting for attention. Over the course of thefilm the chemistry comes together, that fam-ily dynamic that everyone is familiar with.

�How did you find your co-stars?Presumably, playing a family of sorts, youneeded to develop a certain chemistry?

Well, I’d known Miles for a while — we'dtalked about this project, and we’d workedtogether, so there was a mutual respectalready established. I knew Kate a bit; we hadsome mutual friends, and I'd been dying towork with her. Jamie, I’d respected for a longtime. His talent, his work ethic. So that workedout well. And Toby… I really respect him too!I mean, we just had a great cast. And we allwanted to make something special.

�What are the benefits of working with adirector you’ve worked with before?

The chemistry is definitely stronger. Itallows the communication to be that much bet-ter. You know one another’s tendencies, whatthey like and don’t like. Communication ismost important on set, so when you have thatwith a director the second and third timearound it's just that much stronger.

�What does it feel like when you see your-self on screen with superpowers? It’s really cool. All your imagination and fan-tasies as a comic book fan growing up cometo life. You know when you’re a kid and you’replaying and figuring out what super power youwould want to have? Well, actually getting tovisualize it and have it not just in your headis awesome!

�Looking back over the shoot, what has beenthe biggest challenge?

I guess one thing was with the costumes;the spacesuits and containment suits could bea little distracting when concentrating on theperformance. And the green screen too. Thatwas a challenge. You really had to use yourimagination for a universe that wasn’t there;imagining what you are looking at and howyou are reacting to what you’re seeing.

Ever imagined how two words, a few letters apart and as con-trasting as unicorns and the Lochness monster, can get youequal levels of high? We will let you in on a secret then. The

next time you want to hit the dance floors and attempt to attainnirvana, just dump the trusted old cocaine for cacao. It’s like cocaine,only way more chocolate-y.

Don’t wipe your glasses yet because you read it right.According to reports, the latest fad in town (read Europeand LA and restricted to party goers) is that one can snort,drink and ingest this new-found substitute.

In fact, cacao as a party drug is so popular inWestern Europe, that it’s a common substitute foralcohol and illegal drugs like ecstasy and ketamine,and there’s even a monthly dance party in Berlincalled Lucid, that’s dedicated to getting partygo-ers getting high off that chocolatey goodness.

At this point you might be thinking how cancacao — the prime ingredient for goodies likechocolates and brownies (unless you are bak-ing a special batch of brownies, if you know whatI mean) can be used as a party drug? We dugthe answer out. Apparently, when taken, cacaoreleases a flood of serotonin and endorphins inyour brain, making you feel energetic andeuphoric, while the magnesium it contains relax-es your muscles and relieves tension, for a delight-ful full-body “high.” Well, that certainly explains alot about Willy Wonka.

Experts in the field, however, claim that raw, virgincacao is more potent but is not hallucinogenic like acid.A party organiser from Berlin where cacao snorting is legaleven described that it enhances the feeling in a subtle way. “It’s

like a smooth, sensual hug in a cup,” describedthe 36-year-old who mixes 18 pounds of

cacao with honey, agave syrup and cinna-mon for every party.

If reports are to be believed then,a Belgian chocolatier, Dominique

Persoone, even invented a specialsnorting device built especially soyou can snort it very much likecocaine. Persoone claimed thathe created the device called‘Chocolate Shooter’ for a birth-day party for Ron Wood andCharlie Watts of the RollingStones in 2007 as a birthdaypresent. And it does exactlywhat you think it does. It blastsa fancy scoop of cocoa powderup your nose.

Persoone admitted to mixingcacao powder with ginger, rasp-

berry and mint for his patrons inBelgium. He added that chilli pep-

per doesn’t go well with the stuff. We do not know how long it will be

before India catches upto speed with thisrather non-threatening concept. But when it

does will it be welcome with open arms or will itbe up for debate, like so many other ‘serious issues’ in the

country? All said and done, the young lot of us (and a few elders,too) are definitely looking forward to some cacao up our noses. Youcan put a pin on it.

He feels that independent musichas become a ‘little brother’ to

‘big brother’ film music in India,but indie singer Rabbi Shergillsays he is more concerned abouthow the essence of ‘pure art’ is fad-ing away and getting replaced by“entertainment.”

“Art is dying slowly, and gettingreplaced by entertainment. Rightnow, living requires so muchmoney that people can’t really pur-sue pure art; so they end up dilut-ing the art a little so that they makesome money off it,” Shergill said.

“Pure art is not being attempt-ed anywhere... It is not so just inmusic but in many artistic forms.Art is dying in general. And if noth-ing else, it is in a state of decline,”added the artiste, who performedat The Gig Hop at Dublin Square,Phoenix Marketcity, Mumbai, lastweek.

Shergill rose to fame with Bullaki jaana, the song which became avestige for music interspersed withtraditional lyrics, to stream to pop-ularity. He earned the title of‘urban balladeer’ thanks to hisknack of blending rhythms andsounds of Indian culture to hissongs.

As a flagbearer of independentmusic, what according to you cansave art from getting wiped outfrom our culture?

“I don’t know... I am more con-cerned about the independent spir-it of art to survive,” he said.

The Delhi-based singer, whocompleted 10 years in the musicworld in 2015 and has churned outhits like Challa from superstarShah Rukh Khan-starrer Jab TakHai Jaan, Tere Bin, Tu Mun Shudiand Jugni, finds it “complex” tocomment on the current positionof independent music.

“It is a good time to be in inde-

pendent music if you are just start-ing out... You have more places toperform, there is a greater likeli-hood of you earning an honest liv-ing as a musician, you can tour, youcan improve your craft and more-over you can just be a musician.”

But the scene, he says, is not soencouraging for old-timers.

“It is a great time to be some-body who is just starting out but itis not such a great time if somebodywho has been there for long.”

Independent music at onepoint was as big as film music. Post2007, it has become the little broth-er of the big brother, which is filmmusic. And that is where it is beingconfined.

“We have a memory of playingthe big boys and doing things onour terms... So, somewhere thatcan't be done now given the stateof affairs. That is obviously a littledisappointing for people who havebeen there... Now I am just glad tobe able to perform and play mymusic.”

A bevy of musicians have laud-ed the changing times withBollywood opening up to indepen-dent music, but Shergill feels thereis a “complete absence of indepen-dent music” post 2007.

He says: “If we get down tocount popular independent hitssince 2007, we will not be able tofill our fingers on our hands.”

Other than performing,Shergill is working on a new album,which, he says, will be “moremeticulous than previous ones.”

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��:��::�*�It has been an action-packed time at Pestle Weed College

that held its 25th induction ceremony, annual prize distrib-ution, cultural activities and Water Polo competition. MAGanpati, DGP Uttarakhand, was the chief guest for the induc-tion and prize distribution ceremony. The induction programcommenced with a choir presentation followed by welcomedance. The there were western dance, Bhutanese dance,Zumba. Jatin Sethi, VP presented the Annual report of theschool. The water-polo event saw tough competitionbetween Subhash House and Tagore House in whichSubhash House excelled by 10 - 3 goal whereas in the inter-house swimming competition Subhash House won.<��:��"��:�%��"��# ::��" ��

In the recently declared CBSE class X result, two visual-ly handicapped girls opting for Maths and Science have score-da CGPA of 9. Rakhi and Sonali Yadav fought against toughodds to score good grades in all subjects. Pooja Kumari scored8.4 CGPA to rank second in class. Rishabh Dubey has scored

first position with 8.6 CGPA. CBSE gives a choice to visual-ly challenged students with subject combination Sanskrit andMusic in place of Maths and Science along with Hindi, Englishand Social Science. Twelve students opted for Sanskrit andMusic and the remaining 10 students preferred to continuewith the study of Maths and Science which is a more diffi-cult choice for the visually challenged. <#�� :��"��:�

Mussoorie International School celebrated Talent Fiesta2016, as a unique showcase of India’s rich heritage and cul-ture in competitive format. Various forms of music, danceand other talents were showcased at this event where teach-ers and the staff of MIS also contributed to make the eventa blockbuster success. This year’s Talent Fiesta was based onthe theme ‘Cultural Integration’ and in tune with its ethosexhibited performances that ranged from every musical tra-dition of India. It was pleasing to hear International studentssinging and performing on Garhwali music.

��:�� :�*��:J��"��:The standard X batch of CBSE at Ecole has had a cent

percent result. A total of 18 students had taken the exam.Aaliya Javed Hussain and Navya Sihna have a CGPA scoreof 10 and Tanu Raj, Ananya Bhatia and Shivi Singh have aCGPA score of 9 and above.

The once sleepy valley of Doon hasundergone a shift towards urbanmores and is today a bustling scaled-

down metropolis. Conventions and tradi-tions manifest new ways in town. Andamong these swings, a prominent one is theall-new avatar that wedding photographyhas put on. Mere ceremony-specific clicksin done-to-death poses are passé.Contemporary couples in Dehradun aregoing all out and splurging on cinematicoutdoor photo shoots before their D-day.Professional, high-end pre-wedding shootshave become the latest vogue in the sceniccity and have given rise to a new genre inthe occupation of photography. Theselensmen are not only skilled in clicking pic-tures but need to be tech-savvy with exper-tise in digital photo and video editing andprovide bundled services like make-upartists and consultancy on what clothes towear for the shoots. Valley Vivacity got thelow-down on this latest fad.

“Till around five years ago, it was onlyconventional photography with tradition-al poses at wedding ceremonies. But withthe spread of Internet and social media, peo-ple in Doon got exposed to trends in otherbig cities and countries. Folks here lovedwhat they saw and thus the concept of pre-wedding shoots emerged in Dehradun aswell,” observed well-known local photog-rapher Bhumesh Bharti. The fixation withuploading pictures on social media is a keyfactor in nuptial couples being prepared tospend lavishly on new-fashioned pre-wed-ding shoots.

Interactions with city’s wedding pho-tographers indicated that the trend of pre-wedding shoots has picked up pace espe-cially in the last two-three years.Commenting further on the reasons for thisnew fad, Shikhar Dua of High TidePhotography said, “Conventional photog-raphy is mundane and boring. Now peo-ple want something more candid andcasual. With save the date concept and look-ing at other people's photographs ahead oftheir marriage has increased its demand.”Another Doon-based photographerInderjeet added, "Wedding shoots and

videos these days are all about storytellingand capturing candid moments with tradi-tional and conventional photographs.People believe that emotions are depictedbetter in candid shots, hence these shoots."

Together with pre-wedding shoots hasemerged a craze for cinematography- shortfilm-like videos. “Gone are the days whenpeople use to watch just a video of weddingfor three hours straight. They want crisp andshort videos that focus only on the bride andthe groom. Often, couples get made a videoof their pre wedding shoot that they playin a loop throughout their wedding cere-mony. Then there is the fashion of post-wedding shoots and these include tastefulpictures from their honeymoon,” sharedDua.

For nuptial couples, it is about creatinga memory of a lifetime. As expressed byTrishi Goyal, who got her pre -weddingshoot done recently, it is a very special partof marriage ceremonies, “It was my parents’idea and I loved it as I wanted to capturemoments to make them last forever. A pre-wedding shoot is a very emotional, privateaffair and made my wedding very specialgoing beyond old-fangled marriage bustle.The only challenge I faced during the shoot

was the long hours of posing. But it wasevery bit worth the effort and I shall cher-ish my pre-wedding shoot always.” Doonitesprefer buying a full package rather than justthe pre- wedding shoot. A full-fledged wed-ding shoot along with pre -wedding shootranges from �1 lakh to �3.5 lac, and this islesser than the rates in metros like Mumbaiand Delhi. Those wanting only a standalonepre or post wedding shoot need to shell outanything between �20,000 to even �60,000for expensive companies like High TidePhotography.

The verdant environs of Dehradun pre-sent a picturesque backdrop for theseshoots making it an ideal location for cre-ating imaginative movie-like magical pic-tures. FRI, Vishranti Resorts, Rishikesh aswell as Landour, Cloud's End and GeorgeEverest in Mussoorie are the most-favouredsites and the most popular theme for theseclicks is the dreamy-Bollywood- celebromantic effect. Dress as they may likemovie stars, these couples are not used tobeing gawked at and bystanders pose a chal-lenge. “People stare at the couple and thismakes them feel conscious and uncomfort-able. Some clients are shy but it’s our job tomake them at ease,” said Dua.

Rishika Lohia, a businesswoman talkedabout her pre- shoot done by Dua. “Myexperience was absolutely amazing. We shotat three different locations for three days.I decided to go for it as these shoots werevery candid, casual and natural vis-a-visconventional wedding photo albums. Tome, it meant our love and relationship beingportrayed and the best part was that we didnot pose. We were just having fun andexpressing our true emotions. The picturesare striking and I so totally love the conceptof pre-wedding shoots.”

Summer has finally arrived and it is thattime of the year when sugary delights,

hot-dogs and other calorie laden treats seemimpossible to resist. No matter to whatextent these things tempt us it is very nec-essary to keep in mind that our health comesfirst . Temperatures have been escalating dayby day and its gets difficult to keep our ener-gy level stable. Therefore, it is our duty tomake a smart choice of whatever we chooseto eat so that we can stay healthy and slimduring this season. We must always choosehealthy food so that we take in fewer calo-ries than we burn. Our local dietitians tellwhat can be eaten this summer to stay slimand cool.

Shalini Kumari of VLCC tells that insummertime snacking is very easy buthealthy snacking is a must.

“Bhelpuri is an ultimate healthy snackbecause of the ingredients that go into it. Tomake it even more tasty one can add roast-ed chickpeas, corn flakes. Adding blackcumin (jeera ) to the bhelpuri brings an inter-esting twist to the flavor and also cools thebody. Sattu ka sharbat, sattu with milk andfruit is a very healthy cooling drink. Brownbread sandwiches are very good for ourhealth and adding lettuce, olives, cucumber,tomatoes can transform an average sand-wich into something wholesome and deli-cious. Spinach cheela is not only scrump-tious but also very nutritious. Curd is a verydelicious coolant and one can make deli-cious spicy buttermilk, or a glass of sweet-ened buttermilk,” she said.

Dietitians from Max hospital, NeelimaBisht advises that during summers waterintake is very essential to remain slim andhealthy as it acts to control calories and thereare various snacks that contain water thatcan be consumed to keep fit. “Coconut waterhas amazing health benefits. It is a greatalternative to other beverages as it is low insugar and calories. Aam panna adds a newzing to summer with its refreshing coolnature. The presence of vitamin C in aam

panna adds on to the nutritional value andmakes it a super drink. Summers areincomplete without lemon because lemonadds refreshing zest to any drink and hasvarious nutritional values. Lemonade is amust-have summer cooler.”

It is necessary to make smart choices inthe food we consume to avoid packing onpounds during the warm months. Here area few more snacks that can help us stay inshape this summer.�A mixture of yogurt and raspberries is agreat option because the protein fromyogurt and the fiber of raspberry makes ita satisfying snack.�Frozen grapes are a refreshing treat dur-ing summers with high nutritional value andlow calories.�Sweet potatoes in small amounts with adrizzle of lime juice make for a complete sat-isfying snack.�Homemade ice cream using no-fat milklets us add on to our preferred amount ofsugar and adding fruit to it increases itsnutritional value.

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Even though monsoon rains bringout the best in Doon’ scenic beauty,

the heat and humidity spell trouble forpeople with curly/wavy and dry hairmaking their mane one frizzy mess totackle. To bail you out, Valley Vivacity gotexpert advice from leading hair stylistsin the city on the best products that youcan apply at home to smoothen thoseuntamed frizzy tresses.

Schwarzkopf Osis+ Magic Serum:This serum is a light weight serum thatadds instant shine with frizz control. “Itis to be applied on damp hair and just onepump is enough for medium length hair,”advised Poonam of Lakme Salon.

Suman Deep Singh of Cloud 9 rec-ommended Smooth Shine SchwarzkopfShampoo to be used before applying Osis

+ Magic Serum.

L’Oreal’s AbsolutRepair Lipidium: It is awhole range. Shampoo,masques, conditionersand serums are availableat your nearest stores.Geetanjali Salon, VLCC,‘Dazzle Me’ in Doonvouch for its serum thatgives an instant feeling ofsmoother silky hair.

Preeti Chauhan ofFresh and Easy said,“Absolute RepairLipidium is one rangethat I advise not only topeople with frizzy hairbut also dandruff, hair falland damaged hair. Whatcustomers look for is an

‘all in one’ product as people in Doonface multiple hair problems. What isimportant for frizzy hair is deep con-ditioning thus it is essential to usemasques after a wash to avoid frizzyhair.”

L’Oreal Techni Art Serum:L’Oreal’s another product hairdressersswear by. “Without second thoughtI use L’Oreal Techni Art Serum.Though we use other productsalso but it gives the best resultsin terms of reducing frizzinessfrom hair,” says Aabid Khan,hairdresser at 7th Heaven salonat New Road.

Applying one to two pumps

from mid-lengths till ends to seal the haircuticles is enough.

Honey and oat shampoo/condi-tioner from Label.M: Prashant Chauhanof Headquarters recommended that peo-ple with frizzy hair should use the

Honey and oat shampoo andconditioner from Label.M. Hebelieves that every brand hassome good products and somenot so good products.

“Rather than going forbrands I prefer going for whatsuits best for my clients. Tony& Guy offers a good range ofproducts that I use in my salon.I would recommend people touse honey and oatshampoo/conditioner fromLabel.M. It is excellent for dryand dehydrated hair. People inDehradun can order it online.”

Schwarzkopf BC Bonacare HairTherapy: This again has a range of prod-ucts that are easily available in the city.Many salons in Doon like 7th Heaven,Dazzle Me and Cloud 9 use this as it con-tains keratin.

Use Hair Masque: Mash a banana,add two spoons of olive oil or coconut oiland smooth over your hair. Let it sit for20 minutes, then shampoo well with luke-warm water.

Avoid blow drying and stick to nat-ural air drying, or use an ionic blow dryeron 70 percent dry hair for finish touch-es.

Do not use a coarse towel: Rubbinga towel to dry wet hair tends to the outerlayer of hair, the exposed cuticle, thuscausing frizz.

Avoid brushing dry hair: Avoidbrushing after your hair are completelydry to avoid damage friction.

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After planning to introducecentral contracts for India's

women's cricketers, the BCCIis all set to give green light tothe likes of Mithali Raj, JhulanGoswami being allowed to playin tournaments like Women'sBig Bash League (WBBL).

"India's womencricketers can nowplay in overseasleagues in Australia andEngland, subject to their con-tracts being approved by theBCCI. The decision, taken dur-ing a meeting of the BCCI'swomen's cricket committee onWednesday, paves the way forIndia's players to take part in

tournaments such as theWomen's Big Bash League inAustralia and the Women'sSuper League in England,"ESPNCricinfo stated.

However BCCI'sannouncement may have cometoo late, however, for Indianparticipation in the inauguralWSL, which will be held this

year from July 30to August 14.

The BCCI hadyet to decide on the issue whenthe ECB sent a letter to all FullMembers seeking their permis-sion to enlist players. The ECBsigned up 18 overseas players —from Australia, New Zealand,SA and WI — and unveiled itsfinal squad lists in April.

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International Cricket Councilchief executive David

Richardson expects Pakistanquick bowler MohammadAmir to tour England nextmonth, saying the former spot-fixer's return is a "good thing"for the sport.

Amir, 24, featured in twoone-day internationals againstNew Zealand in January and thePakistan Cricket Board haveapproached their English coun-terparts for help in securing avisa for the talented left-armer.

He was given a six-monthprison sentence, of which heserved half in a UK youngoffenders' institute, on chargesof conspiracy to accept corruptpayments and conspiracy tocheat at gambling after bowl-ing deliberate no-balls duringthe Lord's Test in August 2010.

The same spot-fixingscandal also saw fellow pace-man Mohammad Asif andthen Pakistan Test captainSalman Butt given jail sen-tences by an English court and

bans by the ICC.Although now cleared to

play again by the ICC, Amir'scriminal conviction could seehim denied an entry visa toBritain for Pakistan's tour ofEngland, where they will playfour Tests — the first at Lord's— five one-day internation-als and a Twenty20 betweenJuly and September.

"I always think you gethanded out your punishment,you serve it and then who arewe to say 'never again?',"Richardson told AFP in aninterview at The Oval in southLondon yesterday followingthe launch of the 2017 ICCChampions Trophy one-daytournament.

"He (Amir) has certainlyshown a willingness to makesure he sets an example now byasking younger players to learnfrom his mistakes.

"Certainly, I think it's agood thing that he's back play-ing," the 56-year-old added.

"I'd be surprised if he(Amir) doesn't end up coming(to England)."

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The Indian women's 4x400mrelay team, to be led by M R

Poovamma, will run in the PTSAthletics Meetings at Samorin(Slovakia) on June 4 in its bid toqualify for the Rio Olympics.

Besides Poovamma (per-sonal best of 51.73sec), theother members of the team areAshwini Akkunji (PB52.80sec), Anilda Thomas (PB52.40sec), Jauna Murmu (PB52.75sec) and DebashreeMajumdar (PB 53.50sec).

The five-member relayteam and the support staff leftfor Vienna from Warsaw todayafter a two-hour drive from theOlympics Training Centre inSpala (Poland) where they arecurrently based for a training-cum-competition stint as part ofpreparations for the Olympics.

Later, on June 11-12, boththe men and women's 4x400mrelay teams are scheduled toparticipate in the secondInternational Sprint and Relayat Erzurum (Turkey), AthleticsFederation of India said.

As per the IAAF regula-tions, only the top-16 teamswill participate in the relayevents at Rio. The finalistsfrom last year's World Relays in

Bahamas have secured auto-matic entry, filling up the firsteight spots.

The 9-16 spots will befilled by those countries whoclock the best average time(calculated from two fastesttimes) between January 1, 2015and July 11, 2016.

In this assigned period,India's women relay team'sfastest timings have been3:29.08sec at the IAAF WorldChampionships in August 2015.

Meanwhile, Jithin Paul willbe participating in the men's400m hurdles event at Samorin.

India's foreign coach YuriOgorodnik said from Spala,"The preparation of the women's4x400m and men's 4x400mrelay after their training inTurkey and now in Spala isgoing on very well, and it will bea great chance for the women'srelay team to qualify for RioOlympics 2016 in Samorin andafter that in Turkey.

"In case of men's relay, theirfirst competition is at Turkey onJune 11-12, where the women'srelay will also be participating.We are looking for more com-petitions in Europe becausethe men's relay team will needa minimum of three-four com-petition to qualify." j

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The International CricketCouncil said that there hasbeen no deliberate attempt to

schedule an India versus Pakistanencounter during next year'sChampions Trophy in England as ithas been widely reported in theBritish media.

In the tournament supposed tobe held between June 1-18, nextyear, India and Pakistan have beenplaced in group B and are scheduledmeet on June 4 at Edgbaston inBirmingham.

"No doubt we want to try to putIndia versus Pakistan in our event,"said ICC chief executive DaveRichardson has been quoted by the'Daily Telegraph'.

"It's hugely important from anICC point of view. It's massivearound the world and the fans havecome to expect it as well. It's fantas-tic for the tournament because itgives it a massive kick," Richardsonhas been further quoted.

But according to sources in theICC, they feel that a wrong twist isbeing given to the groupings whichhas been done in a fair manner.

"David Richardson hasexplained and clarified in the sameinterview that the groups wereformed on the basis of the eightteams' rankings as on 30 September2015. It is just a coincidence, like itis that Australia, England and NewZealand are in Group A, that Indiaand Pakistan are in Group B," anICC spokesman said on Thursday.

Richardson, however, deniedthat the constant clash between the

arch-rivals affects the fairness ofICC events.

"What we try and do is makesure that when you add up the rank-ings of the different groups, they alladd up to the same number of

points. You can do that in a num-ber of ways. So long as the pools arebalanced, it's silly to avoid (the fix-ture) when you can fairly cater forit," he added.

The logic for ICC is that the first

eight teams within the stipulatedtimeframe of September 30, 2015qualified for the event and it hasbeen ensured that both groups areequally strong keeping in mind thebalance of the sides.

Their explanation is that cumu-lative total of ICC seedings is 18 forboth groups. Australia (1), NewZealand (4), England (6)andBangladesh (7) comprise group A.The sum total is 1+4+6+7 which

equals 18.Similarly, in group B, India (2),

South Africa (3), Sri Lanka (5) andPakistan (8)'s sum total of rankingsis also 18.

For ICC, if Indo-Pak contest is

a big ticket game, so are Australia vsEngland on June 10 in Edgbastonand England vs New Zealand orAustralia vs New Zealand games.

"The groups were determinedstrictly according to the rankings asat the cut-off date and in such a wayas to create parity in each group, sothat one group is not stronger thanthe other. This requires that the totalranking points in each group shouldbe the same i.E. 18 points each.

This method has been consistent-ly followed for all previous events andstrictly within those parameters, it hasturned out that India/Pakistan havefound themselves legitimately andfairly in the same group," the ICCspokesman added further.

A couple of days before the all-Asian clash, Australia and NewZealand will lock horns in a repeatof the World Cup 2015 final atEdgbaston.

The top eight sides as onSeptember 30, 2015 have qualifiedfor this tournament, with worldchampions Australia seeded num-ber-one. They head Group A, whichalso includes fourth seeds NewZealand, sixth seeds England andseventh seeds Bangladesh, who willbe returning to this competition forthe first time since 2006.

India lead Group B, which alsocomprises third seeds South Africa,fifth seeds Sri Lanka and eighthseeds Pakistan.

The top two sides from eachgroup will progress to the semi-finals, which will be played atCardiff and Edgbaston on June 14and 15 respectively, with The Ovalhosting the final.

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Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal onceagain emerged as the lone

Indian survivor at the IndonesiaOpen after registering a straight-game win over local favouriteFitriani Fitriani to reach the quarter-finals of the Super Series Premierevent here on Thursday.

Three-time champion, Sainaprevailed over World No. 53 Fitriani21-11, 21-10 in a match that lasted32 minutes in the second round ofwomen's singles competition here.

Eight seed Saina, who had wonthe title in 2009, 2010 and 2012, islikely to take on top seed CarolinaMarin of Spain in the last eight here.

However, it was the end of theroads for Rio-bound women's dou-

bles and men's doubles pairs of JwalaGutta and Ashwini Ponnappa, andManu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddyafter they suffered contrastingdefeats at the Istora Gelora BungKarno Stadium earlier today.

While 2010 CommonwealthGames champions Jwala andAshwini lost 9-21, 18-21 to Chinesecombo of Huang Yaqiong and Tang

Jinhua in women's doubles, WorldNo. 20 Manu and Sumeeth wentdown 18-21, 13-21 to sixth seededKorean Ko Sung Hyun and ShinBaek Cheol.

Saina, who had beaten Fitrianiat the Badminton AsiaChampionships in April this year,dished out a dominating game whichthe Indonesian had no clue.

In the opening game, Sainamoved to a 9-7 lead and then racedto 14-7 with six consecutive points.The Indian kept marching ahead andsoon pocketed the game to earn thebragging rights.

In the second game, Saina cameout with all cylinders blazing as shezoomed to a 10-3 lead and then con-tinued her rampaging run even asFitriani's game crumbled.

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India will begin their four-Test series against the

West Indies on July 21 afterplaying a couple of warm-upmatches in their 49-day tourof the Caribbean.

India will arrive inSt.Kitts on July 6 to play atwo-day warm-up fixture atWarner Park on July 9 and10. At the same venue, theywill play a three-day gamefrom July 14-16.

The first Test at the Sir

Viv Richards Stadium will befollowed by the second,which will take place atSabina Park, Jamaica fromJuly 30, the BCCI said in astatement on Thursday.

The Indians will then trav-el to St.Lucia for the third Test,to be played at the DarrenSammy Cricket Stadium fromAugust 9. The final game of theseries will be held at theQueen's Park Oval in Trinidadfrom Aug 18.

The team will depart forhome on August 23.

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Dehradun is playing host to crick-et teams from across the coun-try for a coveted national level

cricket tournament. Being organized inthe city by the Cricket Association ofUttarakhand, the 34th All India GoldCup Cricket Tournament that com-menced on May 27 has set the cricketstage in Doon abuzz with activity. Theseries will conclude on June 12.

A total of 16 teams are taking partin the tournament from all over India.The inauguration ceremony of theevent was organised at Rangers Collegeground on May 27. The Minister ofsports and forests Dinesh Agarwal wasthe chief guest on the occasion.

The teams competing includeRajasthan Cricket Association, DenaBank, Delhi, Mumbai CricketAssociation, Delhi District Association,Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association,Lucknow Development Authority,Minerva Chandigarh And ReserveBank of India, Bengaluru,Chhattisgarhand Haryana. Also participating areteams of Army XI, Chandigarh CricketAssociation (CCA) and Indian Airlines.

President of Cricket Association ofUttarakhand and Doiwala MLA, HiraSingh Bisht informed that winningteams will be awarded cash awards,medals and certificates. The matches arebeing held at three different sites in thecity namely Maharana Pratap SportsCollege, Abhimanyu Cricket Academyand Rangers College ground.

Secretary of the association PCVerma informed that Kunal Chandola,Vaibhav Bhatt, Anuj Rawat, Dhanraj

Sharma, Karanveer Kaushal, AbhayNegi, Pradeep Chamoli, Agrim Tiwari,Mayank Mishra, Arya Sethi, RishabhButola, Harjeet Saini, PriyanshuKhanduri, Amit Kumar, Tushar Saklani,Sunny Kashyap, Abhinav Bisht, VaibhavPanwar, Chand And Ankit Chaudharyare selected playersrepresentingUttarakhand and their coachesareIndermohan Barthwal, Pawan Laland Vipin Kumar.

The first match was played betweenAICC-Allahabad and Rajasthan CricketAssociation at Rangers College ground.Allahabad won the toss and opted to batfirst. With a fixed 40 overs they scored282 runs before losing all their ninewickets. Anshul Kapur and AakashTomar both scored half century in their

maiden matches. Whereas RCA couldonly make 118 runs in 24.3 overs andlost to Allahabad.

The second match of the day wasplayed between Dena Bank Delhi and

Haryana Colts at Abhimanyu CricketAcademy. Joginder Singh of Haryana'steam scored 111, Sameer Qureshi, 63Sumit Kumar, 50, the team scoring atotal of 275 runs. Dena Bank, Delhicould only make 211 runs and lost thematch. In the first match of the secondday Dena Bank Delhi again lost to RCAwhereas AICC Allahabad also lost toHaryana colts.

Uttarakhand’s team lost its very firstmatch while playing against MinervaCricket Academy, Chandigarh. While inthe second match, AirportAuthoritywon against the team fromLucknow.

With good performance in most oftheir matches, Rajasthan and Haryanahave secured a place in quarter finals.

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To provide an opportunity to players from smaller towns tohave a national level exposure, Uttarakhand Super League,

an inter-district football tournament set on the lines of the IndianPremier League (IPL) will be organised from June 15 to July15 across Uttarakhand in Dehradun, Haridwar, Pithoragarh,Haldwani and Pauri. The prize money for winners and runnersup will be �15 lac and �10 lac respectively. The MD ofUttarakhand Super League is local businessman SachinUpadhayay.

The league will involve 14 teams, 13 from each district andone extra team from Nainital representing Corbett national park.USL is being organised by Uttarakhand Adventure Sports Pvt.Ltd and has the support of the All India Football Federation andthe Uttarakhand State Football Association. Former Internationalplayer and Arjun Awardee Bhaichung Bhutia is said to be theBrand Ambassador for the tournament.

Football aficionados in Uttarakhand will get a taste of thegame in IPL format as teams such as Almora Burans, HaridwarGanges, Nainital FC Lake, Pauri Platoons, Pithoragarh Panthers,Rudraprayag Monals, Tehri Lions, Udham Singh NagarWarriors, Uttarkashi Glaciers, Doon Capital Rangers, CorbettTigers, Champawat Hills, Chamoli Bugyal FC, Bageshwar FCKafals will fight it out for the coveted trophy in the tournament.

The trials were supervised by District Sports Officials. Sixteam members and four stand-ins were selected from each dis-trict. Six hundred and fifty one players from 14 states wereinvolved in the state selections, of which 351 were selected.

Giving details about the event, managing director of USLSachin Upadhayay, said, “The objective behind organising thisleague is to promote football at grass root level and make Doona huge platform for football. We shall constantly endeavour towork towards development of football as a sport. Each team willinclude four international players and six players from each dis-trict. The six players and four stand-ins will be given to the fran-chise partners free of cost, and each team will be allowed to bidon four international and 15 state players.

From the time Dehradun hasbecome the capital of

Uttarakhand we can see it devel-oping each day. Dehradun hasgot good medical facility, edu-cational institutions. Youth fromDoon studying in other statesfind that Doon has built theimage of a bustling smallmetropolis and is compared tothe most popular cosmopolitancity of India — Mumbai. Hereis why.

Mumbai is known for itslovely weather and so isDehradun because of its localrandom rains which compel thepeople in the plains to visitDoon Valley and enjoy theweather anytime of the year.Earlier Dehradun was known as‘Retirement Village’ where oldpeople after their retirement pre-ferred to stay because of the awe-some climate and the peacefound here in midst of thegreenery. But the times havechanged all of this and now wesee more and more of younggeneration advancing towardsDoon Valley. Picnic spots near-by have been one major reasonof attraction along with the cli-mate because places likeMussoorie, Dhanaulti,Sahastradhara, Haridwar,Robbers cave have never failedto attract tourists. With thepopulation growing day by dayin Dehradun the street fashionseems to fade away and thetimes have changed to the ‘Mallculture’. There are franchises ofthe best outlets and this can beseen by the never ending queueof showrooms on Rajpur road.Big automobile showrooms likeMercedes, Yamaha, et al haveopened up and to own one ofthe most expensive car doesn’tseem to be a distant reality any-

more.Fashion trends as well as

the nightlife of Mumbai andDehradun seem to be similarbecause every fashion that startsin Mumbai doesn’t take muchtime to come down to Doon.Fashion trends are now justnot restricted to these bigcities but Doon is more openand competitive towards thesetrends followed in big cities.Talking about the nightlife inDehradun we see a drasticchange because from silentnights the culture of nightlifeis increasing day by day.Earlier we had youngsterscomplaining that Dehradun isnot as happening as the othetbig cities but now pubs, clubs,

late night parties have becomethe latest trend of DoonValley.

One can notice the rise inapartments, hotels and town-ships here. There are variousorganisations and institutionsof national and internationalimportance here since thetimes of British. Institutionslike Forest Research Institute(FRI), Indian Militar yAcademy (IMA) that provideDehradun a very strong base.

The once sleepy city ofDoon has undergone a visiblecultural transformation in thelast few years and is today asalubrious blend of sceniccharm and a vibrant urbanlifestyle.

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# ) ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛˘˚ ˜ ! ’ +’+, -’.ˆ /0 ! ˇ ˚ & 1 -$ ( ? ˚ , 0 ... post-godhra...